MAAC Men's Basketball Starts League Play Thursday
EDISON, NJ – The conference portion of the 2018-19 MAAC Men's Basketball Schedule gets underway on Thursday, January 3 with a full five-game slate.
Siena College (5-8) visits Saint Peter's University (3-9) at 4 p.m. The four other games all start at 7 p.m.; Canisius College (3-8) heads east to Marist College (5-7), Monmouth University (1-12) travels to Iona College (2-9), Fairfield University (3-9) hosts Rider University (5-7), and Manhattan College (2-10) hosts Quinnipiac University (5-6). Canisius at Marist and Fairfield against Rider are on ESPN+. Monmouth and Iona will be on ESPN3.
Niagara sported the best record in non-league play in the MAAC. The Purple Eagles closed non-league play 5-2 over their last seven, which started with a win at Pitt on December 3, 71-70. Senior Marvin Prochet leads Niagara in scoring (18.2) and rebounding (9.5). Prochet is second and first in the MAAC in those categories respectively.
Quinnipiac, Marist, Rider, and Siena all won five games in non-conference play. Siena topped Cal Poly its last time out 75-54. Rider is a perfect 3-0 at home, winning those games by an average of 16.3 points. Marist won the Samson Bracket at the 2018 Basketball Hall of Fame Belfast Classic. Quinnipiac has alternated wins and losses over its last six.
Saint Peter's has played the most overtime games in the country this season (4). The Peacocks are 3-1 in those contests—all coming at home.
Siena's Jalen Pickett is a three-time MAAC Rookie of the Week and was also named MAAC Player of the Week on December 3. Picket became the fourth freshman to earn MAAC Player of the Week since 1986. The others are Schadrac Casimir, Iona (Dec. 15, 2014), Darrell Barley, Canisius, (Jan 24, 1994), and Lionel Simmons, La Salle (Dec. 21, 1986).
Fairfield's Neftali Alvarez has collected three Pepsi Zero MAAC Men's Basketball Rookie of the Week Honors. Alvarez and Pickett own six of the eight Rookie of the Week honors this season.
Cameron Young from Quinnipiac is the MAAC's leading scorer at 18.4 a game. The graduate student has the two of the three highest scoring games in the MAAC this season; 29 at Stony Brook and 28 versus Lafayette.
Teammates Evan Fisher and Pickett pace the circuit field goal percentage and assists respectively. Fisher is hitting 54-percent of his shots and Pickett hands out seven helpers a game.
Manhattan's Nehemiah Mack hits 89-percent of his free throws to pace the league. The top marksman from 3-point range is Landon Taliaferro of Fairfield at 46-percent.
Defensively, Rider's Dimencio Vaughn and Niagara's Dominic Robb are tops in steals and blocks. Vaughn averages 2.7 steals per contest and Robb rejects 3.2 shots a game. Robb ranks fourth in Division I in blocks per game.
The 2019 MAAC Men’s and Women’s Basketball Championships will return to the Times Union Center in Albany, NY for the fifth consecutive year March 7-11. Iona is the three-time defending champion.
Tickets for the 2019 Championship can be purchased at
Ticketmaster.com or by calling the Times Union Center Box Office at 800-745-3000. More information can be found at
MAACsports.com/championships.
For the latest championship and ticket information, schedule updates, and all other MAAC Basketball news follow
@MAACHoops,
@MAACSports and visit
MAACSports.com.
About the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference:
With 11 institutions strongly bound by the sound principles of quality and integrity in academics and excellence in athletics, the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) is in its 38th year of competition during the 2018-19 academic year. Current Conference members include: Canisius College, Fairfield University, Iona College, Manhattan College, Marist College, Monmouth University, Niagara University, Quinnipiac University, Rider University, Saint Peter's University, and Siena College.