ALBANY, N.Y. – “Stay together no matter what.” Those were the words spoken in the pregame huddle, and the Stags did just that. Fairfield cut a Marist lead that was as high as 19 in the second half to 11 with 3:47 to play but could not come all the way back as the Stags were eliminated again by the nine-time defending MAAC Champions Marist, 67-50 in the semifinals of the tournament.

“I'm very proud of the way they battled,” Head Coach Joe Frager said. “That was during the stretch where we were pressing, we got several stops and able to get some scores. I can't fault our team at all. They went through a very rough patch, they could have packed it in, they didn't, they battled for every possession going down the stretch. They were very frustrated because they really wanted this one, but that's why you play them, you never know how they are going to turn out.”

Down by 17 with 7:14 to play and without their leading scorer Casey Smith (who had to leave the game at halftime after experiencing concussion like symptoms after an inadvertent elbow in the final play of the first half left a gash on her head), the Stags (15-16) were able to score the next six points to make it an 11-point deficit at the 3:47 mark.

However, Marist (21-10) was able to keep their poise and rattle off the next eight points to clinch their 29^th straight playoff win.

The two teams could not miss in the first eight minutes of the game. The Stags hit eight of their first 12 shots including their first four from behind the arc to score 20 points in the first eight minutes of the game.

However, Marist matched them shot for shot, going 8-for-11 during that span as the Stags could only grab a 22-19 lead with 12:32 left in the first half.

Combined, only six shots were missed in the first 7:28 of the game allowing Marist to total just one rebound during that span. Fairfield controlled the glass during the offensive explosion grabbing six of the seven boards, with the only Red Fox carom coming off the offensive glass.

After that the Stags' offense started to cool down, finishing the half connecting on just one of their next 22 attempts which spanned into the second half. Although Fairfield was not hitting shots, they were able to get stops on the other end and keep their composure until the turning point of the game. Last year's MAAC Tournament MVP Sydney Coffey converted a four-point play which put the game at 31-26 with 3:59 to play.

“That's a big swing there,” Coach Frager said. “It's not easy to spot Marist a double-digit lead, we're not a big pressing team so it takes us out of our comfort zone.”

Marist ended the half on a 10-0 run which spanned 5:45.

Kristin Schatzlein was one of the bright spot in the half for the Stags, scoring a team-high nine points and going a perfect 3-3 from deep. However, the Red Foxes focused in on the sharp shooter in the final frame and for the rest of the game she was not given an inch to set up.

“They weren't letting me touch the ball,” Schatzlein said. “They were having screens they were switching out on me and I just couldn't touch the ball as much I couldn't shoot.”

Instead the long-range shots came off of the bench with Margeaux Dupuy hitting some clutch shots going 2-3 from long range.

Eight different Stags scored in the first MAAC Semifinal appearance for the school since 2012. Samantha Cooper joined Schatzlein in the double figure list with 10 points and seven boards and finishes her first full collegiate season third of the squad with 7.8 points per game.

“Honestly I just have to be proud of myself and my team of how well we did,” Cooper said. “Starting 1-8 and 2-10 we could have just packed it in but we came back from it. I think we have to look at the season as a whole and I'm just really proud of the group and how we did.”

“A lot of credit to Sam from coming back off double knee surgery,” Coach Frager said. “That's not easy but she had to work hard to come back from that.”

The Stags end the season with their ninth-straight winning MAAC season including the last eight under Frager who became the first coach in MAAC history to have eight-straight winning conference records to begin a career.

With only two points before her injury, Smith fell three points shy of tying the Stags' all-time rookie scoring record that has now stood for 17 years by Fairfield great Lisa Mikelic.

The year also saw the further development and emergence of one of the best leaders that Fairfield will ever see in Felicia DaCruz who finishes her Fairfield career ninth all-time in assists with 405.

Coach Frager got choked up when talking about the loss of DaCruz. “She's meant a lot,” he said before pausing. “She's given us absolutely everything that she's had. Even when we took her out of the game she was saying to the players on the bench 'don't forget how this feels right now, learn from this.' She was thinking about those guys as opposed to herself with 50 seconds to go in her college career.”

DaCruz will be the only player that the Stags will lose for next season due to graduation and Fairfield will be one of the favorites returning 93 percent of their scoring and 91 percent of their rebounding.

“A lot of people just do that simple math, well you only lost one and you bring back four so you're going to be really good. But that's not how it works,” Frager said. “These guys need to work really hard, we need to get physically stronger in the weight room, they need to add something to their game, and I know they will. They'll work very hard.”

And they'll fight to the very end.