SPRINGFIELD – Fairfield senior Derek Needham did not want Friday night to be his final game as a Stag.

The senior put his team on his back at times, helping rally them down by as many as seven in the second half, scoring a game-high 24 points in Fairfield’s 54-47 victory over St. Peter’s.

“I thought they show a ton of heart,” Fairfield head coach Sydney Johnson said of his seniors. “We’ve had our backs up against the wall the last few games where we’ve come up short but they played inspired.”

“Our seniors, they were just outstanding. They played inspired basketball so it willed us to win.”

The Fairfield senior class collected 31 of the team’s 54 points on the night, 24 of those coming from 8 of 21 field goals from Needham.

Needham said he was not ready to end his four year career as a Stag.

“I don’t want to go home yet,” Needham said.

St. Peter’s held their largest lead of the game early in the second half at seven at 44-37 after a Desi Washington three pointer. Needham responded making a deep two followed by a drive to the basket old fashioned three-point play to cut the lead to two.

Minutes later junior Mo Barrow collected his own miss underneath the basket and laid it in to tie the game at 44.

After falling behind on a Chris Burke two pointer off the glass, Needham drove in transition off a Yvon Raymond miss and got a shot to go off the window to tie the game at 46.

MAAC co-rookie of the year Amadou Sidibe received the ball on a rotation late, getting fouled by Darius Conley on an open look. Sidibe’s free throws put Fairfield ahead 48-46. The next offensive possession the Stags’ Needham missed a three pointer but Colin Nickerson grabbed the rebound underneath the hoop. Nickerson missed the tip in but Sidibe tipped it in to give the Stags a four-point lead.

Sidibe finished with a game high 13 rebounds to go with six crucial points. Freshman Coleman Johnson blocked two critical shots on drives by Raymond to the basket to help shut down the Peacocks offense.

“We tried to tell them keep going it’s a long game,” Needham said of the play of the freshmen. “It’s a MAAC tournament game, these are the hardest games for you to win in your career. We just told our freshmen keep going we’re going to need you down the stretch.”

The Stags defense worked over the Peacocks in the second half, holding them to just one point over the final 4:55.

“The guys are just committed to it,” Fairfield head coach Sydney Johnson said. “They work tremendously hard in practice.”

“Derek knows this, he’s been a joy to coach, the seniors have been a joy to coach and really they just work so hard so it’s just fun to be around. I think what you saw tonight is their practice habits that came out and they stayed true to the scouting report and we made enough plays to win.”

The Peacocks managed just one field goal over the final 11 minutes of the game.

“They don’t let you get to the rim and they take away your strengths,” St. Peter’s head coach John Dunne said. “They’re very well coached with their defensive game plan.”

“Clearly I would like to get Desi [Washington] more shots, especially from behind the arc but they do a great job sticking it to him, trailing him, bumping him on cuts but other guys have to make drives. I did think we had some layups there, [Yvon] Raymond had two to three drives where he’s good at driving right and finishing, they just didn’t go down. They didn’t go down for him.”

Fairfield was held without a field goal for over seven minutes for a part of the first half as they watched a their lead as large as 10 evaporate.

II think our energy went down,” Needham said. “In the MAAC tournament if your energy goes down a team can make a run at you and they put us in a hole.”

Needham gave Fairfield a 27-26 halftime lead on a three pointer with 1:29 left. Neehdam picked up his third foul early in the second half the Peacocks capitalized. St. Peter’s stormed out of the half, taking a game that was tied at 30 and expanding their lead as large as seven at 41-35.

The Stags advance to play the second-seeded Rider Broncs, who they beat twice during the regular season by 10 points or more.

Ryan Restivo covers the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference for Big Apple Buckets, follow him on twitter @ryanarestivo.