Fairfield’s brief stay in Atlantic City was seemingly well rehearsed given its shooting struggles all seasons. Starting out, the Stags were happy to trade a scoring frenzy for a slow-paced slugfest. With neither team shooting well, Fairfield staked out a 10-2 lead which became a 24-15 advantage. It turned south from there for the Stags, however. going scoreless over the final 3:58 of the first half while finding themselves on the wrong side of a 13-4 Saint Peter’s run.
At halftime, Young cited the Peacocks switching from a zone defense to man-to-man as a reason for the Stags’ slippage. Beyond what the Saint Peter’s defense was giving, Fairfield struggled to hit threes just like it has all year. Hitting from beyond the arc would have gone a long way toward helping Fairfield stretch its lead. Instead, the Stags missed on all four of their three-point attempts and went into halftime tied at 28 despite not trailing in the first half.
The drought carried over to the second half for the Fairfield offense and consigned it to a double-digit deficit less than halfway through the final stanza. The Stags didn’t have much better luck with their threes when trailing either. All in all, Fairfield was 3-15 from deep in its final cameo. The Stags conclude their season shooting 28 percent from long range. Meanwhile, the defense looked helpless as Saint Peter’s connected on nine 3-point attempts, prompting Young to concede being beaten by a better team.
“They beat us at our own game tonight,” he said. “We’re one of the top 15 teams in the country defending the three and they’ve struggled to shoot the three but made nine on us.”
Young knows Saint Peter’s is a highly capable team still even despite getting ransacked by the transfer portal in the offseason. Being in a position to play the Peacocks in March two straight years ended up being a tough draw for Young’s Fairfield teams. Last season, the Stags were victim number four in the Peacocks’ 10-game winning streak that was ended by North Carolina in the Elite Eight.
“You gotta make some plays in this tournament to move on,” Young said. “We had done a good job on (Jaylen) Murray in the previous two games, but tonight, we could not stop him,” Young said.
Most impressive in this game was Jaylen Murray’s ability to find another gear. Murray, who is one of few remaining pieces from last season’s Elite 8 team, conjured up more March magic at the right time. He was the alpha in the Peacocks’ lineup Tuesday, scoring 23 points with the help of four threes, receiving extra support from Isiah Dasher’s 13 points and Kyle Cardaci’s 11 markers.
“Jaylen Murray played like an elite guard tonight,” Young said. “We didn’t have a lot of answers for him.”
Murray looked every bit of the star Tuesday that Fairfield had been lacking in its own lineup. Inconsistency and unpredictability followed the Stags guards all season.
Fifth-year guard Jake Wojcik never found his footing all season, and took one shot in his final collegiate game. Fields had to play 39 minutes and played hard, but wasn’t nearly the version of himself that he needed to be if the Stags were to make a run in March. Both Wojcik and Fields were also set back by injuries this season, which didn’t help their cause.
In 26 minutes, TJ Long went 1-for-5 from deep with a couple regretful turnovers. With his team in need of someone to step up, he didn’t have the answers tonight either. Given his large share of responsibilities, it’s easy to remember Long is still an underclassman who will hopefully learn from these adverse experiences.
In a quiet night for Supreme Cook, Chris Maidoh provided a spark off the bench in what may have been his final game as a Fairfield player. Maidoh left it all out there, starting the game with a block and then scoring on a hook shot and a dunk. His energy was palpable in the game’s opening minutes when the Fairfield defense was holding strong. That included forcing a backcourt violation in the first half when helping trap the Saint Peter’s guards.
“My sophomore year, I missed the tournament and it was a terrible feeling,” Maidoh recalled. “I didn’t want to let my team down.”
The scouting report on Maidoh for this was non-existent really after he had been sidelined since February 3 due to a knee injury. He was a game-time decision Tuesday and finished with a team-high 12 points. The man in front of him in the rotation, Cook, had a quiet nine-point, nine-point rebound performance to cap off a junior campaign which earned him third team all-MAAC honors.
Besides Wojcik and Zach Crisler, who are graduating, it’s still too early to tell who will be back next season. Cook still has two years of eligibility, and Maidoh and Allan Jeanne-Rose can choose to come back next year as well. Fairfield does have two redshirt freshmen in Michael Rogan and Anthony Davis, Jr., and Mahoney Arena will likely prove to catch more than one recruit's eyes this offseason. Brycen Goodine, who transferred from Providence and only played four games due to injury, may still be around next year too.
“We’ll take a look at everything and see what we can get better at and improve at,” Young said.
Leo D. Mahoney Arena isn’t going anywhere either. The over $50-million investment in it is a telltale sign that the administration is committed to building a winning program.
“Our school, our president and our athletic director have been tremendous,” Young said. “We have as nice of a facility as you can have in the country and now it’s our job to keep it full and win games there.”
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