Fairfield University’s men’s basketball team completed its 2025-26 regular season campaign with a subdued 69-47 loss to Mount St. Mary’s on Sunday at Mahoney Arena.
With this loss, the Stags finish 19-12 overall and 11-9 in the MAAC, placing them as the #7 seed in the MAAC Championship tournament.
Riding high on recent successes, the Stags started the afternoon with Senior Day celebrations, where Ryan Zan, Michael Rogan, Noah Best, Luke Davidson and graduate students Deuce Turner and Braden Sparks were honored at halfcourt with friends and family in attendance.
Those high spirits quickly turned sour as the first half unfolded.
Kept in check by the Mount’s defense, the Stags only managed to score 25 points within the first 20 minutes of play. Sparks kept the game alive until a late run gave the Stags some hope in the form of consecutive threes from Sparks and first-year Tony Williams, but the run was halted as the Mountaineers piled up to 39-25 by the end of the half.
“I thought they physically beat us up,” said head coach Chris Casey. “They were very tough defensively, tough on the glass, and tough with 50-50s. We’ve been tough in those ways the entire season, I think we’ve done a good job of it. But we did not do a good job of it today.”
Fairfield showed signs of life to start the second half, making their way to just a six-point deficit at 39-33 with 17 minutes to go. The Mount responded with a 6-0 run, and the Stags failed to gain momentum after that point.
Sparks led the Stags with 15 points, including two three-pointers; he is solidified in fourth place on Fairfield’s single-season three-pointers leaderboard with 91.
First-year Declan Wucherpfennig contributed nine points, three assists and a game-leading 14 rebounds.
Off the bench, first-year Brandon Benjamin added four points and pulled down eight rebounds.
Shutting down the duo of Benjamin and Wucherpfennig seemed to be the key for the Mount, according to head coach Donny Lind.
“Our guys had seen those names throughout Rookie of the Week and things that have come across from the league. Those guys were certainly motivated to show that they belong in that conversation of the best bigs in the league,” Lind said of the pair.
Williams and sophomore Isaac Munkadi each added eight and seven points, respectively. Rounding out the scoring were first-year Halon Rawlins and Rogan with two apiece, and Turner with one.
Fairfield is set to face the number 10 seed, Manhattan University, on Thursday at 8:30 p.m. for the first round of the MAAC tournament. All games for the tournament will be on ESPN+, with the final getting a nationwide spot on ESPN 2 on March 10 at 9 p.m.