Game Notes

Riding a five-game Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) win streak the Fairfield University women's basketball team faces a stiff task on Sunday afternoon when it makes its 2010-11 debut at Webster Bank Arena at Harbor Yard. The Stags welcome the MAAC's top team Marist College for a 1 p.m.

game. The Red Foxes are 20-2 on the year and 11-0 in the MAAC and are riding a 16- game win streak.

Tickets are available at the Webster Bank Arena box office or online at Ticketmaster. Sunday is 'Stags Basketball Bingo' with the first 1,000 fans 18 and older receiving basketball bingo cards and a chance to win great prizes. In addition, all City of Stratford residents will get two tickets for the price of one (must show proof of residence), while adult YMCA members will receive two-for-one tickets and all youth YMCA members will receive free admission.

If you can't make it to the game there are plenty of viewing options as well. John Cummings and Maria Conlon will call all the action on WVOF 88.5 FM, while a live video stream of the game is also available as is Livestats.

Fairfield earned its 15^th win of the season at Iona, 67-63 in overtime, on Friday and at 15-7 needs just one more win to secure its fourth consecutive winning season under Joe Frager. The Stags have won at least 15 games and twice 20 or more, in each of the last five years, the longest stretch since the program won 15 or more games in each of its first seven seasons at the Division I level.

Fairfield is 8-3 in league play and tied with Manhattan for third place. The Red Foxes are the lone MAAC undefeated, 11-0, while Loyola is in second place at 9-2. The Stags and Lady Jaspers are two games ahead of fifth-place Siena (6-5) and three ahead of Iona (5-6), who the Stags have swept this season.

Fairfield and Marist are meeting for the 37th time and for the first-time since the Stags the 2010 MAAC Championship Game which saw the Red Foxes pull away for a 66-49 victory. That Marist win equaled the all-time series between the two schools at 18-18. Fairfield has earned a win over the Red Foxes in each of the last two seasons, something no other MAAC school has accomplished since Loyola did so in the 2005-06 and 2006-07 seasons. The Stags look to become the first league team to win a game in three consecutive seasons against Marist since Siena won five of six regular season match-ups from 2002-05. The team's split the season series in the Red Foxes first two seasons in the MAAC, with each team winning games on the others floor in both the 2001-02 and 2002-03 campaigns. Marist won 11 consecutive games from 1/22/04 through 1/5/08 before the Stags defeated the nationally ranked Red Foxes 73-65 in overtime at the McCann Center on 1/23/09.

Marist is the final MAAC team for the Stags to face, doing so in the 12th game of the 18-game conference slate. Fairfield has wrapped-up three season series already, before meeting the Red Foxes. The two teams will meet again in the regular season finale, February 27 at Marist.

The Red Foxes enter the game on a 16-game win streak, 20 total victories, a perfect 11-0 MAAC record and an average margin of victory of nearly 19 points. Marist averages 68.7 points per game by shooting 42.2 percent from the field, 34 percent from behind the arc, and nearly 76 percent at the free throw line. Erica Allenspach is the team's leading scorer, averaging 13.2 points per game and shooting 51.3 percent from the field. Corielle Yarde is the other Red Fox in double figures, 11.9 points per game, and a team-leading 5.5 rebounds a game. Elise Caron has a team-best 70 assists and is one of six players with 21 or more assists this season.

Brittany MacFarlane had 10 rebounds at Iona on Friday, her fifth double-digit rebounding effort in her 10 league games. She enters today's contests averaging 9.1 boards per game in MAAC action, tops in the league. That surge on the glass has raised her season rebounding average to 6.1 per game, second on the team and seventh in the conference. She has eight consecutive games with at least five rebounds.

Desiree Pina handed out a career-high equaling six assists at N.C. State and has 18 assist in the last four games. The junior has handed out a team-best 66 assists and her 3.0 per game is good for fifth in the conference and she is on pace to lead the team in assists for the second consecutive season.

With Pina averaging a season-best 10.1 points per game, the Stags enter Sunday's game with three players in double figures. Katelyn Linney is leading the way at 12.8 points per game, while Taryn Johnson is scoring 12.6 a game. Johnson has scored in double figures in eight straight games, raising her scoring average from 10.9 per game. Pina has seven double-figure games in the last eight outings to raise her scoring average 1.6 points a game.