No. 10 seed Manhattan (7-12, 6-12) vs. No. 7 seed Fairfield (7-16, 7-11)
Metro Atlantic Conference Tourney First Round, Boardwalk Hall, Atlantic City, New Jersey; Tuesday, 7:30 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: Manhattan and Fairfield are set to do battle in the opening round of the MAAC tournament. The teams split the regular season series at one win apiece. The teams last played each other on March 5, when Manhattan made only four 3-pointers on 18 attempts while the Stags went 11 for 26 from deep en route to an 18-point victory.
SAVVY SENIORS: Fairfield's Taj Benning, Jesus Cruz and Caleb Green have collectively scored 46 percent of the team's points this season and have accounted for 45 percent of all Stags scoring over the last five games.EFFICIENT ELIJAH: Elijah Buchanan has connected on 28.6 percent of the 56 3-pointers he's attempted and has made 4 of 14 over his last five games. He's also made 70.4 percent of his foul shots this season.
PASSING FOR POINTS: The Stags have recently used assists to create baskets more often than the Jaspers. Fairfield has an assist on 31 of 71 field goals (43.7 percent) across its previous three contests while Manhattan has assists on 31 of 73 field goals (42.5 percent) during its past three games.
DID YOU KNOW: The disruptive Manhattan defense has forced opponents to turn the ball over on 22.7 percent of all possessions, the 29th-best rate in the nation. Fairfield has a forced-turnover percentage of only 16.4 percent through 23 games (ranking the Stags 317th among Division I teams).
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