Fairfield Travels to Monmouth to Face MAAC Leaders

Fairfield (12-10, 6-6 MAAC) tries to get back on the winning track on Friday night (February 5), but will have to do it against MAAC conference leader Monmouth (18-5, 10-2 MAAC), traveling to West Long Branch, NJ. The Stags rank fifth in the conference, and the 12-win victory total is five more than all of last season for head coach Sydney Johnson. Tip-off is at 7:00 PM, and WVOF Radio (88.5 FM) will air the MAAC matchup with Bob Heussler and Joe DeSantis calling the action. ESPN3 will broadcast. Quinnipiac (7-13, 4-7 MAAC) snapped Fairfield-s three-game win streak on Monday night at Webster Bank Arena, fueled by the high octane effort of ‎‎Giovanni McLean, who poured in a career high 25 points to lead all scorers ‎‎in the battle of Connecticut MAAC rivals. It was the Bobcat-s second straight win. Meanwhile, Monmouth has reeled off four straight wins, and captured nine of their last 10 for head coach King Rice. The Hawks defeated USC, UCLA, Notre Dame and Georgetown earlier in the season to gain national attention. Fairfield-s scoring leaders are senior Marcus Gilbert (18.6 ppg) and sophomore Tyler Nelson (16 ppg). Gilbert has paced the Stags in scoring in 11 games, including a career best 33 against Columbia on November 27 in an overtime victory. Gilbert-s 18.6 ppg season-s average is fourth best in the MAAC. Monmouth junior Justin Robinson is third with 20.8 ppg as the Hawks leading scorer. Nelson has scored 20 or more points in the last seven Fairfield wins, including his career best 27 to lead the Stags over Niagara on January 15. Nelson-s 16.8 ppg in conference games rank ninth in the MAAC. Curtis Cobb was tabbed MAAC Rookie of the Week on Monday on the strength of his career high 25 point performance. Cobb is tied for the MAAC lead for steals per game in conference play, averaging 1.9 per game. Overall, Cobb is tied for 11th in the MAAC for steals per game with 1.3 along with teammate Tyler Nelson. He is also tied for 15th in the MAAC for overall three-point field goal percentage at .375. Cobb is the top scoring freshman for the Stags, averaging 10.1 points per game. He is one of five freshmen in the MAAC to have a double-digit scoring average. He became the third Fairfield freshmen to garner the MAAC Rookie of the Week award, joining Jonathan Kasibabu (November 23) and Jerry Johnson Jr. (December 28). Fairfield entered the Quinnipiac game as the MAAC-s top scoring team with 79.9 ppg, but finished with its lowest output since a 70-57 loss to Yale in the season-s opener.‎