Saturday, March 7th, 2:30 p.m. (et).

FACTS & STATS: Site: Times Union Center (17,500) -- Albany, New York. Television: MSG2, Local. Home Record: Fairfield 9-4, Manhattan 9-5. Away Record: Fairfield 6-8, Manhattan 7-8. Neutral Record: Fairfield 1-2, Manhattan 0-0. Conference Record: Fairfield 9-9, Manhattan 9-9. Series Record: Manhattan leads, 44-36.

GAME NOTES: A pair of teams that finished 9-9 against the rest of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference this season collide in the quarterfinals of the 28th annual MAAC Tournament this afternoon as the Fairfield Stags and Manhattan Jaspers meet at the Times Union Center in Albany. Fourth-seeded Manhattan, which has a trio of MAAC tourney titles to its credit over the years and is 17-24 in the event, heads into the postseason on a two-game slide after losing to Saint Peter's in the regular season finale on Saturday (66-63) and suffering a narrow 56-55 setback at Fairfield two days earlier. In the case of the fifth-seeded Stags, they too dropped their most recent game, a 73-69 decision versus Rider over the weekend, which means the team enters the tournament having lost five of the last six games overall. Like Manhattan, the Stags have also won this event three times previously, but their most recent crown came back in 1997 versus Canisius. Manhattan leads the all-time series with the Stags by a count of 44-36, but the Jaspers are a mere 2-5 versus Fairfield when it comes to facing off during the MAAC Tournament over the years. Most notably, Manhattan has lost all five meetings between the programs in the MAAC Tournament quarterfinals. The winner of this meeting will face off against the winner of the Canisius/Siena contest in the semifinals on Sunday night.

On a team that is scoring 65.3 ppg this season, Greg Nero is the top scorer for the Stags with his 12.9 ppg, but he missed a number of games along the way and suffered a back injury as recently as a few weeks ago that has him currently listed as questionable for this meeting. A 54.3 percent shooter from the field, Nero is also one of the better rebounders for the program with 6.6 boards per contest, yet that doesn't cover up the fact that he is shooting only 60.7 percent at the free-throw line. Should Nero be unable to go today, that would leave the squad without a single double-digit scorer with Jonathan Han having left the program last month for personal reasons. Add Anthony Johnson (9.2 ppg) and Warren Edney (9.1 ppg) to the list of the unavailable and this could be a short postseason for the Stags.

Darryl Crawford has been a driving force for the Jaspers in recent weeks, leading the team in scoring in the last five games and posting a season-high 33 points in the last-second loss to Saint Peter's on Sunday. Crawford paces the group with his 14.2 ppg and has made more free throws (126-of-170) than his closest teammate has even attempted heading into the postseason. In addition to his scoring production, Crawford is also a major rebounder for the squad with almost four and a half per game in his 27.5 minutes each time out, not to mention leading the group with 42 steals and accounting for 63 assists. Chris Smith, although just a 36.4 percent shooter from the floor, accounts for another 13.4 ppg and is the leading rebounder with 5.6 rpg. At some point Smith will understand that his value to the team rests with his interior play and not his 29.5 percent effort behind the three-point line. As a unit, the Jaspers are making just 31.9 percent of their shots beyond the arc.

To expect the Stags to give Manhattan a real game today would be asking a lot of a group of players that have been decimated by injury and a variety of lineup changes. Lean in favor of the Jaspers because they have the depth available and revenge as a motivator.

Predicted Outcome

Manhattan 73, Fairfield 65