The Fairfield Men's Club Basketball team defeated Adelphi 67-60 to kick off the season at home on November 10th. The game started sloppy for both squads, as turnovers and missed shots occurred early and often. Halfway through the first half, the score was tied at just 8-8, a product of a cold shooting start and some very lenient referees. Regardless, a series of fast break opportunities for the Stags yielded points and boosted them to a 30-22 lead over Adelphi at the half. The second period was no mirror image of the first, for both teams: Fairfield sophomore forward Dan Tarantino injected some energy into the game with an emphatic dunk, following a mini run by Adelphi through the offensive glass that would tie the game at 37 apiece with 12 minutes to go. Tarantino answered with another jam, but both clubs would fail to get a sizable lead against the other, trading baskets. It started to seem that whatever team could get a three to go down would find themselves on the winning end, as the game was dead even at 43 with a little under eight minutes to go. After what proved to be a much needed timeout with three minutes left and a two-point lead, the Stags were able to do just that. Senior point guard David Casper connected on one of the only triples of the game for Fairfield, pushing them to a 56-53 lead over Adelphi late. A series of clutch stops and points in the paint, including a posterizing dunk from freshman forward JJ Honekamp to put the cherry on top, gave the Stags the 67-60 victory. Fairfield's Casper credited the gutsy win to the team saying, "Comradery is a lot better. It started a little slow, but we started hanging out a little bit more…definitely felt good to get on the court with the new guys and get hyped up with everybody." With that being said, Casper acknowledged that the 1-0 Stags have some things to improve on: "Our offensive rebounding…we're missing a big dude, (but) that shouldn't be an excuse. We have so many athletes, we should be able to get more rebounds…" Fairfield will look to crash the boards more efficiently as they head to Penn State this weekend and look to improve to 2-0 on the young season.