Taryn Johnson (Brockton, Mass.) and Joelle Nawrocki (Unionville, Conn.) scored career-highs to pace the Fairfield University women's basketball team to a 64-48 win over visiting Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) foe Iona College Saturday afternoon at Alumni Hall. The win is the sixth straight for the Stags, who improve to 10-3 overall and 3-0 in league play, while the Gaels fall to 4-11 on the year and 0-3 in conference action.
Johnson scored a game-high 22 points, shooting 8-10 from the field and a perfect 6-6 from the line, to eclipse her previous career-high which came last season at home versus Iona (20). Nawrocki scored 15 points, shooting 3-6 from behind the arc and pulling down eight rebounds. Desiree Pina (Plainville, Conn.) pulled in a career and game-high 11 rebounds, to go along with her eight points.
Iona ended a 13:44 field goal drought on an Anda Ivkovic basket 2:14 into the second-half, to cut its deficit to 10 points (28-18). Johnson, who scored the Stags first six points of the second-half, answered seven seconds later (30-18) and nine seconds after that Haley D'Angelo got Iona back within 10 (30-20) for the final time. Fairfield used its second 9-0 run of the game to open a 39-20 advantage with 15:04 to play and the game would be no closer than 14 points (49-35; 4:34) the remainder of the way. The Stags largest lead of the game was 22 points on a pair of Pina free throws with 1:55 to play and the lead 62-40.
The Stags finished the game shooting 36.5 percent for the game, 19-52, and hit 4-15 from behind the arc. The Stags were 22-27 at the free throw line, a season-high total, with Johnson and Pina both making 6-6. Katelyn Linney (Freehold, N.J.) finished with nine points, hitting 5-6 at the line, and handing out three assists. Laura Vetra (Riga, Latvia) had five points off the bench and had five rebounds.
Iona, which made just three first-half field goals, finished the game shooting 23.1 percent, 15-65, and 4-10 from behind the arc. The Gaels finished 14-22 at the free throw line, hitting 8-12 from the stripe in the first-half. Marissa Flagg (Queens, N.Y.) scored a team-high 14 points, while Ivkovic pulled down a team-high 11 rebounds.
Both teams finished with 46 rebounds, with Iona holding a 16-7 edge in offensive rebounds.
Neither team scored for the first 3:01 of the game, until Johnson scored and then scored a reverse lay-up along the baseline 59 seconds later for a 4-0 advantage. Nawrocki gave the Stags a 7-0 lead with a three-pointer at the 15:24 mark and the Stag run was capped by a Linney basket in the paint at 14:47 for a 9-0 lead.
Iona finally broke through with a Kristina Ford basket at the 14:32 mark, snapping a 0-9 opening, with four turnovers, for the Gaels. Nawrocki answered on the Stags next possession when Laura Vetra found her in the corner for her second three-pointer of the game, and a 12-2 lead. Fairfield continued the run and built its largest lead of the game, 25-10, on a Nawrocki basket with 7:52 to play in the first-half.
That would be the last field goal of the half for either team, as Fairfield missed its final 12 shots from the field, while Linney going 3-4 from the free throw line. Iona's last field goal came with 11:29 to play in the half, a three-pointer by Milica Paligoric. The Gaels would also miss their final 12 shots from the field while hitting 6-8 at the line. Iona committed 11 turnovers in the half, with seven coming in the final six minutes of the period. The Stags turned the ball over nine times in the half, four after the Nawrocki field goal.
The Stags are back in action on Monday night, when they travel to MAAC foe Siena. That game is set for 7 p.m.
