Watkins Scores Career-High 16 in 63-57 Loss to Fairfield

Saturday, December 22

Durham, N.H.

1 PM

University of New Hampshire

2-10

Fairfield

3-9

Fairfield

New Hampshire

Photo by: Jess Speechley

12/22/2018 5:06:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Video Highlights Photo Gallery

DURHAM, N.H. – David Watkins (Dorchester, Mass.) scored a career-high 16 points and pulled down seven rebounds, but the University of New Hampshire men's basketball team was edged 63-57 by Fairfield University in Saturday afternoon's non-conference game at Lundholm Gym.

Watkins made 6 of 8 field goal attempts, including 2-for-4 on 3-pointers, in 26 minutes off the bench. Nick Guadarrama (Newington, Conn.) shot 5 of 6 from the floor for 11 points; he also pulled down six rebounds.

Jordan Reed (Lucas, Texas) contributed nine points and a career-high four steals while Elijah Jordan (Orlando, Fla.) finished with nine points, three rebounds and three assists.

Fairfield was led by Neftali Alvarez (12 points, five rebounds, two steals) and Jesus Cruz (10 points, six rebounds). Jonathan Kasibabu had a game-high nine rebounds.

UNH is now 2-10 and the Stags are 3-9.

LOOKING AHEAD

New Hampshire closes out the 2018 calendar year Dec. 30 (12 p.m.) at Dartmouth College in a game that will be broadcast on NESN.
The Wildcats' next home game is Jan. 9, 2019 (7 p.m.) against UMass Lowell.
Tickets for all home games are available online at www.unhwildcats.com or by calling (603) 862-4000.

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Check out UNHShop.com for the latest in official UNH Wildcats' merchandise.

FIRST HALF

Fairfield struck first, but Reed and Jordan hit back-to-back 3-pointers to give the Wildcats a 6-2 lead. Jordan answered the Stags' layup with another 3-ball to push the advantage to 9-4 at 17:07.
UNH's lead fluctuated between 2-5 points until Watkins drilled a 3-pointer to give New Hampshire its largest lead of the game, 20-13, at 8:33.
Trailing 22-19, Fairfield closed out the last five minutes on a 9-2 lead to take a 28-24 lead into halftime.
The 'Cats ended the first half on a positive note with a thunderous dunk by Watkins with 31 seconds to play and a defensive stop at the other end of the floor.
The stats were relatively even in the opening 20 minutes with Fairfield shooting 36.7 percent from the floor in comparison to UNH's mark of 38.5, and both teams committed seven turnovers.

SECOND HALF

Fairfield opened the second half with a 7-0 run to extend the lead to 35-24 at 16:51.
New Hampshire chipped away and closed within four points, 43-39, on a layup by Marque Maultsby (Raleigh, N.C.) at 11:45.
The 'Cats had two chances to pull closer, but they missed a layup as well as the front end of a 1-and-1 at the foul line before Fairfield's Felix Lemetti hit a pair of free throws at 10:27 to push the margin to six points.
Mark Carbone (Wethersfield, Conn.) hit a 3-pointer to lift UNH within 54-49 at 4:48. After a defensive stop, Reed missed a 3-point shot and then Kassibabu hit two foul shots at the other end to give the Stags a 56-49 lead at 3:29.
A UNH turnover was converted into a short jumper to push Fairfield's lead to nine points, 58-49, at 2:57.
Watkins and Carbone both sank a pair of free throws to lift the 'Cats within 58-53 with two minutes on the clock. Carbone then went 1-for-2 from the line to advance the score to 58-54 at 1:42.
The Wildcats got the ball back with 1:11 remaining, but then committed a turnover with 51 seconds to play and Alvarez made two free throws to give Fairfield a 60-54 lead.
UNH missed another 3-pointer with 32 seconds remaining and sent Taj Benning to the foul line for two shots. He made the first to push the margin to seven points at 29 seconds.
Watkins' 3-ball trimmed the deficit to 61-57 with 15 seconds on the clock. Cruz was fouled almost immediately and made two free throws.
The Stags made 5 of 6 foul shots in the last 46 seconds to secure the win.

SERIES NOTEBOOK

Fairfield defeated New Hampshire for the second consecutive year to improve to 10-2 lifetime against the Wildcats.
This was the first matchup at Lundholm Gym since Feb. 15, 1988, when Fairfeld won 70-57.

UNH NOTEBOOK

Head coach Bill Herrion has 406 career wins and 406 losses.
Watkins' previous career high was 15 points at Temple University on Nov. 14, 2016.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS

Wakins and Guadarrama combined to shoot 11 of 15 from the floor (73.3%); the rest of the team was 9-for-33 (27.2%).
Fairfield made 19 of 25 free throws. The Wildcats were 9 of 13 from the charity stripe.
The Stags recorded a 36-27 rebounding advantage that included a 9-3 edge on the offensive glass.
The visitors had the edge in points in the paint (32-16), points off turnovers (17-11), second-chance points (17-11) and fastbreak points (2-0).
UNH committed 13 turnovers in comparison to Fairfield's 16.
The 'Cats made 8 of 26 3-pointers (30.8%); the Stags shot 4-for-18 (22.2%) from long range.