FAIRFIELD, Conn. – The Stags women's basketball team will make the near eight-hour drive to Buffalo, N.Y. for their longest MAAC road trip of the season. Fairfield will take on Canisius for the first time this season as part of Canisius' annual Kids Day on Thursday at 11am. The Stags opened the month of February with a win against Monmouth and are now 7-3 in their last 10 games.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Fairfield is coming off their fourth-straight home win and the 150th of Joe Frager's Fairfield career as they defeated the Monmouth Hawks 54-52 in overtime. The Stags were able to survive a second half where they made just three field goals (13.6 percent) by regaining their defensive composure. Fairfield held the Hawks to 41 points in regulation and a 30 percent shooting percentage. The Stags rank second in the MAAC in scoring defense in conference games (56.9 percent) and have held four of their last five opponents to 60 points or fewer. The Stags earned season-highs limiting Monmouth to a .297 shooting percentage and by taking 27 free throws.

THE STAGS IN BUFFALO: Fairfield is 31-17 all-time in the infamous Buffalo trip all-time and have swept the road series 10 times, four times under Joe Frager. Conversely, the Stags have been swept only three times in their program history.

CAN'T BEAT SMITTY: Stags redshirt sophomore Casey Smith is coming off her fourth MAAC Rookie of the Week award and her second ECAC weekly honor. With her four MAAC weekly honors, Smith becomes the second Stag since 2009 to win four or more rookie honors (Katelyn Linney - six). Smith is on pace to score 384 points, which would be the most by a Stags rookie.
The 114 points scored in her first 10 games was the most by a Stag rookie in over 15 years.

COOPER IS CLUTCH: Samantha Cooper is coming off her first career MAAC Player of the Week and the first Met Basketball Writer's Division I Player of the Week for the Stags this season.
Cooper had a career-high 22 points in the win against Iona and set a personal-best with 14 rebounds against Monmouth. Cooper averaged a double-double in the two games. Sixteen of her shots this season have either tied the game or given the Stags the lead. Four of those 16 shots have given the Stags the lead for good.

IT'S NOT OKAY TO STEAL: For the second-straight game, the Stags registered double digits in steals, the first time they have done that this season.
It is the first time since December 29-30, 2008 the Stags have gone back-to-back games with 10+ steals. Fairfield has not gone three-straight games since February 2008. The Stags are averaging 11.5 steals in the last two games (4.9 in first 19 games).

FAIRFIELD VS CANISIUS: The two teams will be meeting for the 56th time when they open the 2014-15 season with Fairfield holding a 33-22 advantage. Fairfield dropped a 52-45 overtime decision last season which snapped a nine-game Stag winning streak. Fairfield is 15-10 at the Koessler Athletic Center. Kristin Schatzlein is the leading scorer against the Griffs averaging nine points per game in the series. Schatzlein though has had her best shooting display against the Griffs team shooting 8-17 (.470) from behind the arc. Felicia DaCruz is averaging 4.3 assists per outing but shot only .235 from the floor last year (.556 in 2013). DaCruz had the biggest bucket of the series, converting the game tying layup with four seconds to play. The Stags trailed by eight points with 2:39 to play.

SCOUTING THE GRIFFS: The Griffs are coming in to the game dropping two of their last three games and fresh off a 52-51 loss to Rider. The stat that jumps out when talking about Canisius is their ability to shoot so accurately from deep. The Griffs currently shoot 39 percent from behind the arc, which lead the league by nearly 30 percent. The 39 percent is the seventh most accurate number in the country. Canisius has three players on their roster who are shooting 40 percent or better from 3-point range as the team averages 5.3 makes per contest. If Fairfield can shut down the shooters, numbers indicate they will be successful. The Griffs average 16.5 turnovers and just 34.1 rebounds per 40 minutes. On the defensive side, the Griffs take eight steals per game and allow opponents to shoot 41 percent from the floor. Canisius has shooters that could change the game. Emily Weber, who had just 60 points coming into this season, is shooting 47 percent from behind the arc and is averaging 10.1 points per outing. The Griffs have four players averaging double figures with Kayla Hoohuli (41 percent) and Tiahana Mills (40 percent) making their mark from behind the 3-point arc. Inside the lane, Crystal Porter is their go-to player with 10 points and six rebounds per game. Porter is shooting 44 percent from the floor.

UP NEXT: Fairfield concludes their Western New York swing with a trip to Niagara on Saturday at 2pm.