Laura Vetra (Riga, Latvia) scored eight consecutive points to break a 38-38 second-half tie and help the Fairfield University women's basketball team earn a 60-51 win over Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) host Canisius College Sunday afternoon. The Stags improve to 8-3 on the year, and 1-0 in the MAAC with their fourth consecutive victory, while the Griffs fall to 4-8 on the season and 0-1 in conference action.
Fairfield forced a Canisius turnover to open the second-half that led to a
Joelle Nawrocki (Unionville, Conn.) basket and a 31-22 advantage, 24 seconds into the period, but Canisius would come storming back. The Griffs erased eight from that deficit in a 93 second span, capped by a three-pointer from Jen Morabito (17:45).The Griffs continued the run and forced the first tie of the game, 36-36 (14:30), on a three-pointer by Ashley Durham.
Katelyn Linney (Freehold,N.J.) gave the Stags a short-lived 38-36 advantage two possessions later, before Jen Lennox answered a minute later to knot the game at 38-38.
Vetra put Fairfield, which has now won its MAAC opener in three consecutive seasons, ahead for good with her first basket of the game, 40-38, at the 12:18 mark. Those would be the last points that either team scored for over three minutes until Vetra drained a three-pointer with 8:59 to play, pushing the Stags advantage to 43-38. She wrapped up her personal 8-0 run with a conventional three-point play at the 8:37 mark and gave Fairfield a 46-38 edge.
Linney finished as the Stags leading scorer, netting 12 of her 19 points in the first half and was one of three Stags in double figures.
Desiree Pina (Plainville, Conn.) finished with 11 points, including 6-9 at the free throw line, while Vetra finished with 10 points.
Taryn Johnson (Brockton, Mass.) pulled in a game-high 12 rebounds, to go along with seven points, four blocked shots and three steals.
Brittany MacFarlane (Hamilton, Ontario) corralled a career-best 11 rebounds in the game, as well as handing out four assists and recording three steals in her 33 minutes of action.
After Morabito snapped Vetra, and the Stags, run, Pina scored her converted her first field goal of the game and Nawrocki scored 59 seconds later to give Fairfield a 50-40 lead. Ruttle started the Griffs on the comeback trail with a lay-up in the paint at the 3:34 mark, as Canisius scored six consecutive points to get within four points, 50-46. Pina snapped the Griffs run with her first three pointer of the day (2:33) for a 53-46 advantage. The Griffs would close again to get within four, 55-51, with 45 seconds to play in the game. Linney knocked down 5-6 free throws over the next 25 seconds to secure the win.
Canisius was led by the 19 points of Ruttle, who shot 8-11 from the field and 3-3 from the line. Morabito, who was 4-6 from behind the arc, finished with 16 points and a team-best two assists.
Linney drained a pair of early three pointers as the Stags built an 8-2 advantage just under three minutes into the game. The Stags did not score again for nearly five minutes until
Laura Vetra scored her first basket of the game (12:16), to squelch a 4-0 Griff run during the Stags offensive drought and make the score 10-6.
The Vetra basket began a 7-0 Fairfield run which was capped by a Linney trey (10:13) and gave the Stags an 11-point advantage, 15-6. Canisius responded with five straight points of its own on a three-pointer from Jen Morabito and a basket by Jamie Ruttle to get within four points, 15-11, with 8:28 remaining in the half.
Linney stopped the Canisius run with her fourth three-pointer of the first-half and
Joelle Nawrocki hit two from the free throw line to put the lead back to 11 points, 22-11, with 6:15 before halftime. The Stags took their largest lead of the half, 26-13, on a pair of
Desiree Pina free throws with 3:13 left. Ruttle, who scored 10 consecutive Canisius points, tallied the next four points as Canisius finished the half with a 9-3 run, to close within seven points, 29-22, at halftime.
Fairfield forced 19 Canisius turnovers in the game, including on each of the Griffs first four possessions of the game. The Stags committed just eight turnovers and had an 18-9 advantage in points off of turnover for the game. Fairfield had a19-8 advantage in offensive rebounds, 40-36 overall, and outscored the Griffs 14-9 in second chance points.
The Stags continue their Western New York road trip on Tuesday night when they take on Niagara University at the Gallagher Center at 7 p.m.
