Winning despite adversity is nothing new to the seniors on the men’s basketball team. The Stags have overcome many of the hurdles that have been thrown their way this season. Monday’s blizzard, however, was one exception.
The Stags left their energy, desire to win and the momentum they had gained in the team’s previous two wins last week buried somewhere in the nearly two feet of snow outside the Arena at Harbor Yard Monday.
“We shot ourselves in the foot. No doubt about it,” said forward Nick Delfico, ’03. “We didn’t approach this game the right way mentally and that led to our performance on the court.”
Fairfield had a chance to pull back into a first-place tie with Manhattan with a win on Monday. Instead, the Stags’ lethargic play led to a 58-56 setback to lowly Rider in front of just a handful of fans.
“We were a bit surprised how they came out and put us on our heels,” said head coach Tim O’Toole. “They out-fought us and were more attacking … we were tentative out there.”
Coming into Monday’s game, Fairfield was on a two-game winning streak after defeating Manhattan and Marist last week.
The Stags’ 70-68 win over Manhattan last Thursday ended the Jaspers’ winning streak of 15 games, the longest in the nation at the time. Fairfield didn’t letdown as the team defeated Marist 67-56 on Saturday, where seniors Delfico, Oscar Garcia and graduate student Ajou Deng were honored before the game.
“All of our guys wanted to play for [the seniors],” said O’Toole after Saturday’s game. “When you are there in September and its 6 a.m. and you have workouts, these guys were leading the way because they are the captains. All our guys were ready to go.”
Fairfield is now 15-9 overall and 11-4 in the MAAC, and this year’s graduating class has the team’s third .500 or better MAAC season, something no other class ever had on its resume.
“I’m really happy for these guys sitting up here,” said O’Toole in Saturday’s press conference referring to the three seniors.
Fairfield’s 15 wins this year is the most since the team went 20-10 in the ’95-96 season. The Stags have also guaranteed themselves their first winning season since that 20-win year when Fairfield went to the NIT Tournament before losing to Providence in the opening round at the New Haven Colliseum.
“We took the hard road. We scheduled up. We wanted to build a program so that down the road we would be a team competing in the upper echelon of our league,” O’Toole said. “Our program is in a different place, and for these guys to have been through it all, I’m really pleased. Not one thing has come easy for them.”
Delfico is close to breaking the program’s all-time record for games played, after competing in every game for Fairfield in his collegiate career.
Garcia has emerged to currently lead Fairfield with 282 points and second with 110 rebounds this year.
Deng, who is still suffering the effects from off-season foot surgery, has slowly progressed as the season is nearing its climax.
“We’re doing real well right now, and anything I can do for the team to help us win, I’m going to do it,” Deng said.
On Monday, Fairfield appeared to be showing signs of the mid-season form, that saw the team earlier this year win seven straight conference games, after one of the biggest regular-season wins in school history against Manhattan and backed up by Saturday’s 11-point win over Marist.
The Stags, however, took a step back when the smaller Rider team dominated Fairfield from the opening tip. Fairfield found itself buried in a 17-4 hole to start the game after giving up second and third opportunities that ended up being costly down the stretch.
“It’s just an embarrassing loss for us,” Delfico said. “For the work we put in, the way we’ve been playing lately, we just weren’t ourselves from the opening tip.”
After Monday’s loss, the Stags remain in second place in the MAAC and finish their regular-season with three away games starting Saturday at Niagara.
“We have time to regroup,” O’Toole said. “We’ll get a few practices in and be ready to go up to Niagara.”
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