Fairfield University won its first regular season Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference championship since 1985-86. It will be the No. 1 seed in the upcoming MAAC tournament, which will be played at the Webster Bank Arena in March.
Yorel Hawkins scored 14 points to lead the Stags, Ryan Olander added 13 and Derek Needham scored 11 as Fairfield topped Marist, 61-54, on Wednesday night to clinch the title.
"When Coach [Cooley] recruited us, he told us to give him a chance to give us a chance to win a championship," Hawkins said in the post-game news conference. "Tonight, we took a step with the MAAC regular season championship. Now, we need to focus on the tournament championship."
Fairfield tied for the regular-season title in 1995-96. It will play its first game in the MAAC tournament March 4.
Fairfield never trailed but allowed the Red Foxes (4-24 overall, 3-13 MAAC) to hang in for most of the game. Marist pushed the lead to 58-43 with 3:39 left on a three-pointer by Needham for its biggest advantage of the game. Marist closed the game with a 13-3 run for the final margin.
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