Stags’ seniors live to fight another day as Fairfield routs Canisius

Jesus Cruz drives to lane for layup as Fairfield overpowered Canisius. (Photo by Bob Dea/Daly Dose Of Hoops)

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — Taj Benning and Jesus Cruz have been the cornerstones of Fairfield basketball the past several years, staying in the program through the coaching change from Sydney Johnson to Jay Young and being rewarded last March with a run to the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference championship game.

Several months later, each decided to use their fifth year of eligibility, afforded to them by the NCAA in light of the pandemic, hoping to finish the job for the Stags this season. And as the minutes in each of their respective careers dwindle down, neither is ready to relinquish the basketball just yet.

Fittingly, Benning and Cruz led the way for Fairfield Tuesday, as the Stags used their staunch defense to rattle Canisius and create offense in a 72-50 victory over the Golden Griffins inside Boardwalk Hall.

“Coach always tells us that it will never get better than this, being in college, being with your friends, playing college basketball,” said Cruz, whose 19 points led the way for Fairfield. “We’re extremely blessed to be doing that and we just don’t want it to end, so we’re going to play like it. Every possession counts, so we played with that mentality.”

“We know what’s at stake this time of year,” added Benning, who tallied 15 points. “Like Jesus said, we don’t want this to end. We love it here and we just want to keep playing ball here. That’s why we go out there and play with that sense of urgency. We just don’t want to stop playing for Fairfield.”

The Stags (15-17) started their tournament run the same way they forged a rally twelve months ago, feeding off the man-to-man defense Young has made a calling card out of through his various coaching stops. Fairfield limited a normally efficient 3-point shooting Canisius team to just five makes in its 23 attempts from long distance, one of the many maladies that plagued the Griffs.

“We dug ourselves a big hole in the first half,” Reggie Witherspoon lamented. “We missed free throws, we missed layups, and we couldn’t get stops enough to get back in the game.”

With the win, Fairfield takes on Saint Peter’s in a rematch of Saturday’s regular season finale, where the Peacocks held the Stags to just 41 points. When asked about a potential advantage to such a short turnaround, Young was hesitant to commit one way or the other, but heralded his team’s bread and butter in the process.

“I’ll tell you tomorrow at about this time,” he quipped. “But they’re obviously a great team and we’re going to have to find a way to score some points, because we haven’t done that in our first two meetings. We’re going to have to figure something out in 24 hours, and I know one thing: These guys will come out and the rest of us will play hard.”

“It was about our defense. Our defense is our best offense. We can get stops, we can rebound the ball, we can get out and run and get easier shots. I think everything starts with that end of the floor. We were able to do that tonight. I thought Caleb (Green) was good for us tonight, and Supreme (Cook), although he didn’t score a field goal, threw the ball out versus some doubles and got us some looks on the other side. For us, it’s always about defensive rebounding and how it fuels our offense. We were able to do that tonight, and we scored some points.”