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Braden Sparks shined for Fairfield in a 78-68 win over Sacred Heart | Indi DelRocco - Fairfield Athletics
Joe Gallo is the king of Merrimack College. So much so that the Warriors gave away t-shirts, inspired by Drake Maye Lover’s viral attire, that read “I (Heart) Joe Gallo.” They broadcasted that love on national television on Friday night as Merrimack clinched a share of the MAAC Championship in just its second season in the conference.
The Warriors took down Siena in overtime, 79-72, in front of a sold-out Lawler Arena crowd on ESPNU. Now 15-2 in the MAAC and 17-3 over the last 20 games, Merrimack is three games ahead of the pack with three games remaining in the regular season. All it takes is one more win or one Saint Peter’s loss for the Warriors to clinch an outright title, and it would take a lot more than just tying at 15-5 for Merrimack to not end up as the top seed in Atlantic City.
“These guys earned it,” Gallo said. “We didn’t get a whole lot of hype in September and October. Everything we’re getting now. We did it through out play, not from some offseason acquisition or something like that. So these guys deserve all of it.”
I ranked Merrimack fifth in my preseason power rankings – I knew I should’ve ranked them higher. The Warriors were picked seventh in the MAAC Preseason Poll. They didn’t have anybody on the Preseason All-MAAC teams.
Everything I wrote about Kevair Kennedy in the MAAC Preview feels like an insult in hindsight, even though I was a huge fan of his game. Kennedy scored 32, making 16 of 16 free throws in the win over Siena.
It was Todd Brogna, who was a star at Stonehill before transferring to Merrimack and dropping his usage rate nearly a full 10%, delivering the dagger. Kennedy went in the lane and found him in the corner for a three, extending the lead to five with under a minute left in overtime.
That game was a tremendous advertisement for the league. Siena played a good game, had chances to win it, but Merrimack just had too much in front of a raucous home crowd.
And now, they’re champions.
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There are still three gamedays to play, but we now know the ten teams who will compete for the MAAC Men’s Basketball Championship in Atlantic City in just about two weeks. Thanks to Iona’s overtime win over Saint Peter’s, and Mount St. Mary’s win over Niagara, the Purple Eagles were eliminated from MAAC Tournament contention, joining their Western New York brethren Canisius, as well as Rider, as the three who will be left out of the party.
Those three are also the current bottom three in the women’s standings, with Canisius and Niagara having already been eliminated from contention on that side.
That leaves us with 10: Merrimack, Saint Peter’s, Siena, Quinnipiac, Marist, Mount St. Mary’s, Fairfield, Manhattan, Iona, and Sacred Heart, in some order.
So let’s talk about Friday night.
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FAIRFIELD, Conn — If you squinted hard enough, you could see faint glimmers of the 2023-24 Fairfield team on the floor at Mahoney Arena. Yes, this team’s roster construction is much different. No, this team doesn’t have four All-MAAC-level guards. But that team’s greatest strength was transition dominance.
The Stags displayed that in spades on Friday in a 78-68 win over intracity rival Sacred Heart. Braden Sparks made four threes in the second half alone, and Fairfield drilled eight of 14 3-point attempts after the break. It turned a 10-point first-half deficit into a lead of as many as 15 throughout the second half.
“We’re so good in transition,” Sparks said. “We try to ock in on defense, make sure our gameplan is executed, finish the possession with a rebound, and get out in transition.”
It’s everything that Fairfield wasn’t able to do consistently last year, and why having Brandon Benjamin on this year’s roster is so important. He’s the best rebounder in the MAAC, and will likely be one of two freshmen on All-MAAC teams, along with Merrimack’s Kevair Kennedy. Benjamin was the best player on the floor on Friday night, looking so much more nimble on the perimeter than earlier in the year.
He finished with 18 and 10, but also shut down Anquan Hill, Sacred Heart’s best player. He didn’t attempt a three until late in the first half and struggled to break down Benjamin throughout the night.
“I just took it personal,” Benjamin said. “I know he’s their leading scorer. The last time we played, he had over 17 points, and I felt like I could’ve done a way better job.
“I was more aggressive than last time. (Last time) I was just basically seeing what he would do and he just kept scoring. This time, I wasn’t giving him that chance.”
He switched out onto guards and held his own on the perimeter. Fairfield’s guards fronted Hill and made it difficult for the SHU guards to throw entry passes into him on the switches.
Casey said that the Stags are really simple on the defensive end, but it’s working because of the improvements made throughout the year, especially from Benjamin.
“Ball screen coverage has improved,” Fairfield head coach Chris Casey said. “He’s gotten more proactive instead of reactive to it. And his X’ing, he’s been more aware of X’ing when we switch onto somebody, he’s done a really good job of being more aware and proactive in those situations too.”
And that’s how they get stops. And then grab rebounds. And then it’s time to run.
With less than eight minutes left in the game, Sparks made an open three from the corner in the half-court to extend Fairfield’s lead to 12, and then Benjamin grabbed a rebound off a missed triple by one of Jaden Slaughter – a shot you’ll live with – passed it ahead to Sparks, and he rhythm dribbled into a deep three from the left wing.
“I always shoot open ones,” he said.
It forced a Sacred Heart timeout and the game had gotten out of hand. That was all within the second four-plus minute scoring drought of the night for Sacred Heart, which only had one in the previous eleven games.
Anthony Latina’s team turned the ball over eight times in the second half, giving Fairfield even more opportunities in transition, but also counting as wasted possessions, especially in a half where they couldn’t get threes to drop.
“They disrupted us,” Latina said. “I thought their switching was bothering us a little bit. When you have eight turnovers in a half, shoot three for 13 from three and 11 for 27 from the field, you gotta make some plays. I thought we had some looks that didn’t go, and I thought that wore us down mentally.”
SHU jumped out to an early lead as Mekhi Conner had five assists in the early minutes of the game, but only two for the rest of the contest. Immediately after the Pioneers grabbed a 30-20 lead, Ryan Zan made a three for the Stags, and the Sacred Heart lead never got back to double digits. Fairfield cut it to five at halftime, and then opened the second on a 13-2 run.
It’s the second time in MAAC play that Fairfield made double-digit threes, and two of them have come against SHU. They flipped the script from last year, where the Pioneers won all three matchups with the Stags, sweeping the regular season series.
Casey will tell you that it’s onto the next game, but he knows the importance of the White Out crowd and student section that came out for the rivalry.
“I was really excited about the fanbase that was here,” Casey said. “It’s always great, but especially with those students here, they did a great job of energizing us.”
And the town is painted in Fairfield’s shade of red.
Other Games
Iona 72, Saint Peter’s 64 (OT): Take a deep breath, Iona fans. You’re not going to miss the MAAC Tournament in year one under Dan Geriot. It’s been a wild roller coaster ride of a season for the Gaels, but they now have wins at home over Siena, Merrimack and Saint Peter’s, which very well may end up being the top three seeds in Atlantic City. It’s also notable that the Gaels are just 2-6 on the road in MAAC play. Meanwhile, the Peacocks have also struggled on the road, dropping to 3-5 in MAAC road games. Iona cut the rotation down to mostly seven players – with brief cameos by two others – and rode Denver Anglin, Lamin Sabally, Kosy Akametu, and CJ Anthony for 41, 41, 40, and 37 minutes respectively.
Marist 84, Manhattan 70: Justin Menard and Rhyjon Blackwell stepped up with 30 and 22 points, respectively as the Red Foxes grabbed their first win in the absence of Elijah Lewis. Menard’s 30 is a career-high, and solidifies him as a contender for an All-MAAC team. Marist has three straight winning seasons in MAAC play for the first time since 2006, 2007 and 2008. It was the second-best offensive performance of MAAC play for the Red Foxes, scoring 1.31 points per possession. Manhattan’s three-game winning streak comes to an end, and the Jaspers will finish with a record of .500 or worse in conference play, dropping to 8-10. Terrence Jones scored 29 points in the loss.
Mount St. Mary’s 76, Niagara 63: That’s three in a row for the Mount, which now has a winning record in MAAC play for the first time all year. Luke McEldon scored a season-high 25 points and the Mount was 27 of 45 inside the arc. It only needed to attempt 13 threes.
Niagara will not make the MAAC Tournament. It’s the second consecutive year for the Purple Eagles missing out on the dance. Greg Paulus essentially has had to flip his entire roster three years in a row. When you’re taking as many players from as many different levels as Niagara has been, the odds on gettitng enough hits are really not in your favor. It’s certainly possible to do, but it’s not easy. The Purple Eagles have still not won a MAAC game outside of Western New York this season, and the last chance will come on Sunday against Rider. I wonder what this offseason looks like for NU. Will they be able to retain some key pieces? Will they be able to upgrade talent?
Canisius 72, Rider 66: At 2-15 with three games left, the Broncs are in danger of becoming the first MAAC team to win fewer than three conference games since Canisius in 2011-12. The Griffs ended their eleven-game losing streak with hot shooting early from Kahlil Singleton and a strong day from Bryan Ndjonga.
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