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Armon Harried takes a jump shot in the first half of the Canisius men's basketball game against Fairfield Dec. 3 at the Koessler Athletic Center in Buffalo, N.Y.
Ken Morey
74
Winner Fairfield Fairf 4-3,1-0 MAAC
68
Canisius Canis 2-6,0-1 MAAC
Winner
Fairfield Fairf
4-3,1-0 MAAC
74
Final
68
Canisius Canis
2-6,0-1 MAAC
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 F
Fairfield Fairf 37 37 74
Canisius Canis 36 32 68

Game Recap: Men's Basketball |

Men’s Basketball Drops League-Opener to Fairfield

Fairfield graduate student Jesus Cruz scored a team-high 16 points and fellow graduate student Caleb Green added 14 points as the visiting Stags defeated Canisius 74-68 Friday night in MAAC men's basketball action at the Koessler Athletic Center.
 
The win moves Fairfield to 4-3 overall and 1-0 in MAAC play, while the Golden Griffins slipped to 2-6 overall and 0-1 in conference action.
 
GAME RECAP
Fairfield used a 13-1 run in the opening 4:28 of the second half to turn a one-point game at halftime into a 12-point lead for the visitors with 15:38 left to play in the contest. A pair of free-throws by Canisius junior Akrum Ahemed cut Fairfield's cushion to 57-53 with 11:16 left on the clock, but back-to-back buckets by Fairfield's Taj Benning stretched the Stags' hold back to eight points at 61-53.
 
With less than 5:00 remaining, Fairfield led 72-62, before Canisius used a 6-0 run to make it a four-point affair with 28 seconds left to play. In that late run, junior Jacco Fritz scored all four of his points for the contest, but with time winding down, Canisius was forced to foul, and Fairfield freshman TJ Long iced the game with two makes at the charity stripe to send the Stags home winners.
 
In the first half, Canisius led by as many as five points early on at 9-4, with seven of those points coming from junior Armon Harried, who ended the night with a game-high 18 points. Fairfield battled back and took its first lead at 11-9 moments later, but the two teams went into the locker room with the Stags up 37-36 after neither squad held a lead larger than five points in the closing 15:15 of the opening stanza.
 
Harried added eight rebounds and an assist to his final stat line for the Griffs, which have now dropped two straight. Senior Jordan Henderson was good for 16 points on 5-of-10 shooting, with two of those makes coming from 3-point land, and Ahemed chipped in 11 points, two rebounds and two assists. For the game, Canisius shot 40.7 percent from the field as a team, while Fairfield shot 51.7 percent from the floor, highlighted by 42 points scored in the paint. Both teams had 36 rebounds in the contest, with Canisius' Malek Green grabbing a team-high nine boards for the Blue and Gold.
 
Head Coach Reggie Witherspoon's Postgame Comments
"This was a physical, hard-fought game. We were not nearly sharp enough defensively to survive this kind of game. You have to give credit to Fairfield. They just played better than us tonight."
 
"When you're down, and you're trying to get back into a game, you have to play with more energy at both ends, but there's an even greater need to play with high intensity and energy on defense. If you don't get stops, you can't win. It's that simple. We gave up too many offensive rebounds, we allowed them to get deep-position in the post and we gave up too many blow-by baskets. Those things can't happen. You can't win a game when you're fighting from behind when you're just exchanging baskets at both ends."
 
GAME NOTES
• This was the 91st all-time meeting between the two teams. Fairfield now leads the series 51-40.
• Canisius dropped its MAAC-opener at home for the first time since the 2011-12 season.
• The Griffs were charged with nine turnovers in the loss, the second-straight game where the Blue and Gold had single-digit turnovers.
• Harried has now scored in double-figures five times this year.
• Henderson's two 3-point field goals in the game makes Friday the 25th time in his career where he's made multiple treys in a contest.
• Five of Fritz's six boards on the night were offensive rebounds.
• The Griffs were without the services of senior guard Ahamadou Fofana, who was out with the flu.
 
UP NEXT
Canisius will close out its five-game homestand on Sunday afternoon when the Griffs play host to Monmouth at the Koessler Athletic Center. Game time is set for 1 p.m.
 
For complete coverage of Canisius men's basketball, please follow the Griffs on social media at @Griffs_MBB on Twitter and Instagram.
 
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