Coming into its regionally televised Sunday night game at Canisius, the Fairfield men’s basketball team had no gas left in the tank, according to Head Coach Tim O’Toole.
O’Toole was speaking figuratively, but he might as well have been speaking literally. The Stags, who had just completed a marathon six-game road trip – the longest such trip in Division I. basketball – lost a tough game at home to Manhattan on Friday night, during which they led by nine points in the second half before collapsing. Then, on Saturday morning, it was back on the bus for Buffalo, where they appeared overmatched in an 87-71 loss to the Golden Griffins.
‘It was unfortunate that we didn’t play better against Canisius, but I think the Manhattan game took a lot out of us and the road swing came into play,” O’Toole said. “…However, that being said, I’m really looking forward to February and having our team re-group.
The most recent case of road-sickness, O’Toole said, was caused not just by the amount of games the team has played away from home, but by the location of the games.
The Stags started a recent three-game tour of Interstates 95 and 90 with an impressive 80-72 win last Tuesday at Loyola (Md.). They had just completed a five-hour, five-state trip to Baltimore when they silenced a raucous crowd at Reitz Arena by handing the Greyhounds their second home loss of the year. That night, Terrance Todd ’06 poured in a career-high 35 points and fellow guards Michael Van Schaick ’07 (40 minutes, 18 points) and Herbie Allen ’09 (15) hit dagger after dagger from behind the three-point arc.
But then it was back to the bus, to head back up I-95 to Fairfield, where the Stags finished out the week in class before hosting a struggling Manhattan team on Friday in a game that promised to be entertaining from start to finish.
The Stags, despite out-playing the Jaspers late in the first half and taking advantage of a Manhattan technical foul to score the first five point of the second half, couldn’t slow down Manhattan guard David Wingate or Manhattan forward Arturo DuBois. Wingate scored ten of his 23 points in the last 3:30, including two huge free-throws that extended a one-point lead into a three-point lead, and forced the Stags to diagram a desperation three-pointer for Michael Van Schaick ’07
Van Schaick came off of a screen and fired a shot from deep beyond the three-point arc, but it rimmed out, and after Wingate hit two more free-throws to seal a 74-69 Jaspers win.
“It’s our play to score three,” O’Toole said after the game. “It was [pretty far out] but [Van Schaick] has pretty good range.”
When all was said and done, the Stags’ chances of getting back to .500 in the MAAC had vanished, and their tour of the Northeastern quadrant of the United States was back on.
“You can’t get any farther in this league geographically, from Baltimore, to Bridgeport to Buffalo,” O’Toole said. “We didn’t get back until 2:30 from Baltimore, didn’t get home until after midnight after the Manhattan game, and then had to go to Buffalo,” he said.
When they got to Buffalo though, with a chance to improve to 5-6 in the MAAC and stay near the top of the league standings, things didn’t go their way.
Correy Herring, a transfer from Baylor playing his first year in the MAAC, scored 34 points and out-shined Todd, who despite the loss, scored more than 20 points for the third straight time, finishing with 21.
“Herring played great and caused mismatch problems all night,” he said. “…Terrance was phenomenal and played very well.”
Now the Stags find themselves badly needing a victory. They are 4-7 in the MAAC, a conference in which nearly every team should stand a chance to win the conference championship and an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
“It hurts to lose, but these guys are battling and I have the utmost confidence in them,” O’Toole said. “They have shown tremendous heart and desire and I believe that our best days of basketball are in front of us. Our league is wide open and if the students don’t get down on us, it’s going to work out well. “
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