WEST LONG BRANCH, N.J. – There's an old adage, 'it's not how you start, it's how you finish.'” That should be the slogan for the 2015-16 edition of the Fairfield University women's basketball team. The Stags started the game shooting 12.5 percent (2-for-16), but finished the contest at a 50.0 clip (21-for-42) as Fairfield took a 68-60 road win at Monmouth. The Stags have now won three-straight, and after starting the season 1-5 in the MAAC are an even 6-6 in conference play.

“I was very happy with that,” Head Coach Joe Frager said. “We tried to keep the tone as positive as possible as we could at halftime. Obviously I wasn't real happy with the way we played so I had to resist the temptation t going off at half because I don't think that's what they needed. We talked about the momentum going our way and having to start quickly.”

That first quarter could not have been worse for the Stags.

Coming into the contest, the Stags (11-10, 6-6 MAAC) knew they were in for a test off the glass as the Hawks (6-14, 4-7 MAAC) came in as one of the best rebounding teams in the conference. Right from the get-go, Monmouth showed that tenacity on the offensive glass, hauling in four of the game's first five offensive boards which helped them to an 8-5 lead in the first seven minutes.

That was basically it for the offense as both teams would combine for just two points in the rest of the first quarter (all going to the Hawks). The Stags would not score a point for the final 7:04 of the first quarter, but found themselves just trailing by five at 10-5.

Testing out a new lineup (their two leading scorers Sarah Olson and Jaamiyah Bethune did not start), the Hawks shot just 26.3 percent in the first quarter (5-for-19) with three different players getting in the scoring column.

Fairfield's shots didn't fall either. As a unit the Stags shot just 12.5 percent during the first 10 minutes (2-for-16) and an 0-for-7 mark from deep.

After six possessions with nothing to show, the Fairfield scoring drought reached 11 minutes without a point until Kelsey Carey finally touched the bottom of the net for the Stags. She would convert on two easy layups over a 30 second span to allow the Stags to exhale.

After Carey's points, the Stags found their positioning. Fairfield would hit six of their next eight shots, including five-straight to get back into the game.

Kristin Schatzlein would force a Monmouth timeout after drilling her first 3-pointer of the game which came after Olsen hit back-to-back layups. Schatzlein's long range shot made the score 16-12 in favor of the home team midway through the second quarter.

Carey would add four more points and the Stags trailed 21-18 going into the locker room. She would lead all scorers with 11 first half points and went 5-for-8 from the floor (the rest of the Stags went 3-for-22)

“We had really good looks but we just didn't knock shots down,” Frager said. “For Kelsey to come up like that in the first half until we were able to settle ourselves at halftime that's really important because if she doesn't have that kind of half, we were only down three, I don't know if that would have been the case.”

“We talk about it a lot in the locker room, if someone is having an off day, it's one of our jobs to step up,” Carey said. “We just need to take responsibility ourselves to get the job done and put the ball in the hoop.”

The Stags were able to right the ship.

After hitting six of their eight four shots in the third quarter, the Stags were able to take their first lead of the day after a 3-pointer from Samantha Cooper. To help them to that lead, the Stags actually connected on 12-of-18 shots, starting from the second quarter.

Carey's reached the 20-point plateau for the second-straight game midway through the third quarter, which gave the Stags a three point advantage.

Fairfield kept that hot shooting going, hitting 60 percent of their shots in the third quarter to take a 40-37 lead into the final quarter.

Everyone can look at Carey's game-high 24 points, but don't overlook the 13 fourth quarter points by Schatzlein.

In the final quarter, Schatzlein showed her senior leadership, scoring 13 points, including the first five points for the Stags. Her biggest bucket came at the 4:45 mark when her 3-pointer gave the Stags their largest lead of the day 50-41. She would do the same thing later on in the quarter when her 3-pointer gave her squad a 56-44 lead.

“Considering the fact she didn't get off to a good start today, that can mess with you a little bit,” Frager said. “We just told her, 'you can shoot it, you're our best shooter, keep taking them. Don't shoot it if you have a doubt. If you're going to take it like you're going to knock it down, that's the Schatz I know.'”

Monmouth would make some key 3-pointers at the end to make the game closer. Dana Carbone made four of those 3-pointers and finished with a team-high 14 points. Christine Mitchell, who came in as one of the leading rebounders in the MAAC, finished with a game-high 11 boards.

In their first win at Monmouth since 1998, Carey led the Stags with 24 points while Schatzlein finished with 20. Schatzlein would go 3-for-8 from behind the arc and hit all five of her free throws. She also tied Lizzy Ball with a game-high seven assists.

The Stags will now return home to open a four-game home stand starting with a game against Niagara Friday at 7pm.