SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – Like fellow MAAC counterpart Siena, Fairfield looks like they got better in their trip to Springfield for the Hall of Fame Holiday Showcase on Friday. The Stags have had some ups and downs in non-conference play, but one of the MAAC favorites looks to be improving as final exams near and showed it in their 59-51 win over Old Dominion on Friday.
Friday’s game was far from a thing of beauty, especially in the second half as it was tightly called and neither team shot well. Fairfield won despite shooting just 37.3 percent for the game, but the bright side along with the win was that they won the rebounding battle 41-40 and got just about every loose ball.
“We’re trying to emphasize loose balls and rebounds, and I thought we came up with a lot of those and it might have made a difference,” said head coach Sydney Johnson.
The Stags actually had a pretty good lead on the glass for a lot of the evening. If there were a stat for loose balls, though, they would have won that handily. They got several baskets off broken plays and from getting a loose ball, and it helped them open up a 46-27 lead near the halfway point of the second half.
The rebounding effort was led by one of two transfers to impact this team right away. Boston College transfer Rakim Sanders didn’t have a big scoring night but grabbed 15 rebounds. That continues a trend, as it was the fourth time in five games he had a double-digit rebound total and the first of those that wasn’t a double-double as he had just nine points on 3-11 shooting.
“The last four games, he’s been tremendous rebounding,” said Johnson, who noted that they struggled on the glass against some big and physical teams. “At some level, he’s kind of taken it on himself to help us rebound, and it’s been a big difference for us.”
Sanders has done the one thing he could always do, which is score, for much of the season. He came in averaging 18 points per game and has thus far made the kind of impact he was expected to, although he’s lately adding the rebounding to what he does and becoming more valuable. He said he feels he should be able to be a factor on the glass, and is showing it.
The other impact transfer has been Desmond Wade, who spent two seasons at Houston but is now much closer to his home of Linden, New Jersey. Wade’s impact has been two-fold, starting with running the show in part by taking great care of the ball, which he did on Friday with no turnovers. That’s the fifth time this season he has done that, and he has a 2.7 assist-to-turnover ratio on the season. It’s no surprise considering he posted over 100 assists in each of his two seasons in Houston along with the same assist-to-turnover ratio.
There’s one other big impact Wade has had, and it affects their best player the past two seasons. How? Well, he simply doesn’t have to do as much.
“Desmond is my savior!” said junior guard Derek Needham with a big smile. “I don’t have to bring the ball up every time, and it takes a lot of pressure on me.”
Added Johnson: “His intangibles are through the roof, and it’s made us a better team.”
Needham will still handle the ball, and he is second on the team in assists on the season. But now he can be more of a scorer, and he likes the chemistry they have as they are often on the floor together. The two competed every day in practice last year while Wade sat out, but appear to be playing off each other reasonably well.
The Stags have had some growing pains because they not only have two impact newcomers, but they also have a new head coach. There’s been some adjustment to the playing style, and besides a few losses the Stags haven’t shot the ball well from long range. While the Stags likewise struggled shooting from three-point range last season as they made just 30 percent of their shots from behind the arc, they out-rebounded teams and had a significant edge in turnover margin.
The feeling is that the team is better adjusted to Johnson’s style now. But it didn’t come easily.
“We’ve had some rough patches in the first seven games, and now everybody’s got a good rhythm,” said Needham.
The Stags have battled through the rough patches and are also 2-0 in early MAAC play after winning two games last weekend. What’s more, both games were on the road, so when conference play starts in earnest they will already be in a good place. Add all of that to Friday’s win, where they did well with some areas of emphasis, and the Stags look to be in a good place as they approach a break in the action that will then be followed with games at Connecticut and Drexel.
