Merrimack hosts Fairfield after Sparks' 22-point showing

Fairfield Stags (5-4, 0-1 MAAC) at Merrimack Warriors (4-6, 1-0 MAAC)

North Andover, Massachusetts; Sunday, 1 p.m. EST

BETMGM SPORTSBOOK LINE: Warriors -2.5; over/under is 143.5

BOTTOM LINE: Fairfield plays Merrimack after Braden Sparks scored 22 points in Fairfield's 70-66 loss to the Manhattan Jaspers.

The Warriors are 2-0 in home games. Merrimack is 1-0 in games decided by less than 4 points.

The Stags are 0-1 against MAAC opponents. Fairfield allows 76.8 points to opponents while being outscored by 2.2 points per game.

Merrimack is shooting 37.6% from the field this season, 7.9 percentage points lower than the 45.5% Fairfield allows to opponents. Fairfield averages 74.6 points per game, 0.5 fewer than the 75.1 Merrimack allows to opponents.

The Warriors and Stags meet Sunday for the first time in conference play this season.

TOP PERFORMERS: Ernest Shelton is shooting 39.5% and averaging 15.5 points for the Warriors. Andres Marrero is averaging 10.5 points.

Sparks is averaging 16.8 points for the Stags. Declan Wucherpfennig is averaging 11.8 points.

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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.