The Fairfield University women's basketball team dropped its third consecutive game, falling 53-44 to Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) foe Manhattan College Friday night at Draddy Gymnasium. The loss drops the Stags 17-11 on the year and 10-7 in league play, while the Lady Jaspers improve to 20-8 overall and 12-5 in conference action.

The loss means the Stags will be either the fourth or fifth-seed at next weekend's Spark Energy MAAC Championship, being played at Webster Bank Arena at Harbor Yard. Fairfield will meet Siena at 3:30 p.m. on Friday, March 4. Fairfield will be the fifth-seed in the championships unless the Stags defeat Marist on Sunday and Siena falls at home to Canisius in which case the Stags would earn the four-seed.

The Stags did not trail during the first-half, leading by as many as seven points on two separate occasions, the last coming when Katelyn Linney hit a jumper with 8:14 before the intermission to make the score 21-14. Manhattan scored four straight points to get within three points, 21-18, before Taryn Johnson hit 1-2 free throws with 6:01 left in the half and followed that nearly a minute later with a basket in t he paint to make it 24-18. The Lady Jaspers would outscore the Stags 7-3 in the final minutes of the half as the Stags went to the locker room with a 27-25 advantage.

Manhattan continued its run to open the second-half in the second-half, tying the game its first possession 27-27. The Stags retook the lead, 29-27, but a free throw from Toni-Ann Lawrence at the 17:27 mark and a field goal on the next possession, also by Lawrence, gave the Lady Jaspers a 30-29 lead it would not relinquish. The half opening run would reach 16-5 as the Lady Jaspers opened a 41-32 advantage just under eight minutes into the half. The Stags would never be closer than seven points the remainder of the half.

Linney led all scorers with 23 points on the evening, hitting 9-14 from the field with five three-pointers. Johnson just missed out on a double-double, with nine points and nine rebounds, to go along with three blocked shots. Fairfield finished the game hitting 34 percent from the field, but 44 percent from behind the arc. 

Manhattan shot 38 percent from the field and became only the second MAAC team, in as many games, to outrebound Fairfield, 36-32. Abby Wentworth led the way with 18 points and six rebounds, as well as handing out four assists and recording three steals. Lindsey Loutsenhizer tallied 14 points and eight rebounds, while Monica Roeder finished with 10 points.

Fairfield concludes the regular season on Sunday when it travels to Poughkeepsie, N.Y. to take on the league's regular season champion, Marist College. Game time is set for 2 p.m.