The Stags extended their win streak to three games with a 64-56 victory over Siena on Sunday at the Webster Bank Arena. Next up for Fairfield (13-10, 8-4 MAAC) is a rematch with Manhattan at 7:30 Thursday night at the WBA.
Here are some notes and quotes from Sunday’s game:
REMAIN CALM, ALL IS WELL: When junior Derek Needham went down hard after missing a breakaway layup with 12:26 to go in the game, coach Sydney Johnson was not worried. Needham had stolen the ball from Brandon Walters, but was fouled by Evan Hymes trying for a left-handed layup and landed hard on his left foot. Maurice Barrow ended up taking both his foul shots and made them.
“He wears body armor underneath his jersey,” Johnson said. “He’s a man, he plays like a man.”
Needham briefly left the court under his own power and went into the locker room with the trainer before coming back into the game.
“I got bumped on the way up and I rolled (my left ankle) because I couldn’t find my other foot when I came down, so I just fell on it,” Needham said.
FORTY-MINUTE EFFORT: The reason why the Stags have won the past couple games – they’ve been more aggressive according to the players.
“It’s being aggressive,” Needham said. “Everyone being aggressive for forty minutes on offense and defense. I think the last two games we’ve picked it up a little bit.”
Rakim Sanders, who was one rebound (23 points, nine rebounds) shy of his eight double-double added to that thought”
“It’s about being aggressive, but it doesn’t happen without your teammates confidence in you,” he said. “Trusting in you to know you hit a shot and then they have confidence to go back to you.”
Even though the Stags have won three straight to climb back into the thick of the MAAC race, they are resting on their laurels.
“We are happy but we are not comfortable,” Sanders said. “We have to keep on playing together.”
FLASHBACK: When the Saints made their second-half run, Johnson did have some thoughts back to a previous MAAC team’s rally at the WBA. Down double digits against the Stags, Loyola rallied to win 66-63 on Jan. 13.
This time, though, the Stags learned from their past mistakes.
“I was thinking about that game during this game,” Johnson said. “Just trying to make sure we’re managing the things that we needed to do. We watched film and we talked about it pretty openly as a team. Smart shots when you have a lead, use timeouts when you get caught or stuck, make sure you are quick to make the extra pass and then any kind of turnovers that you might have or tough shot (you miss) you have to sprint back and defend. It doesn’t mean it has to lead to run outs and scores, so I thought in that sense today there were times we didn’t come up with a layup or three-point shot, but we sprinted our tails back, defended and made Siena work. I think that was a big part of it.”
More from Sydney:
“The game is much easier when the shots are going in – there’s no getting around that. We talked about it the other night. We want to grind it out defensively and I thought our defensive effort the last two games has been very good, but on offense we want to flow and put the ball in the basket. We want to give the guys some freedom and so when they are loose and playing unselfishly it certainly makes the game easier and we’ve been doing it the last couple games.”
On improved offensive play the last few games:
“That’s what we weren’t seeing in the being of the year and it was for a million reasons under the sun. I’m new, Rakim and Dez are new, stiff competition, expectations just name any reason and we just didn’t have our flow. And these guys are really trusting each other and they’ve really settled in to their roles and now you are seeing the team benefit from it. When you have Rakim or Derek on the same time we are a pretty good team.”
Siena coach Mitch Buonaguro
On his team, which has yet to win a MAAC road game (0-5):
“We get it to a certain point but we just can’t get over the hump on the road. We can’t get that stop or we have an inopportune turnover and we just can’t get that lead down to two or four (points).”
On the difference in Fairfield from a couple weeks ago:
“Shooting the ball. The difference I see if they are shooting it better. Obviously Sanders and Needham are playing like one would expect them to play – like all-league players. They had big games today.
“I thought we did a good job on the other guys. We did a good job on (Ryan) Olander and Wade, who killed us in the first game (with 27 points).”
On if the Stags look more comfortable playing for Johnson:
“They looked a lot more comfortable. They are playing; it looks like the offensive flow is better. They are playing with a better flow. Sanders and Needham look in sync and those are two really good players who can take over a game.”
On defending Sanders, who had 17 of his 23 points in the first half:
“We went to a little bit of a three-quarter-court trap and we were getting the ball out of his hands, trying to get it out of his hands and have other guys handle it.”
