FAIRFIELD, Conn. – The first win of the season for the Fairfield University women's basketball team featured a little bit of everything. There were countless defensive stops on both sides, a late rally, a game tying 3-pointer with 18 seconds left to force overtime, and ultimately a go-ahead layup with five seconds remaining that gave the Stags their first victory of the 2016-17 campaign, 58-57 in an overtime win against Loyola University Maryland.
The hero for the Stags was their redshirt senior Casey Smith, who while bandaged with a cut above her eye that would force stitches immediately after the game, took a looped pass inside the paint with seconds ticking down and muscled her way to the basket to convert the game-winning layup. The heroics followed a clutch play on Loyola's (1-2) end when their leading scorer Bri Betz-White converted a layup of her own to give the visiting side a 57-56 lead.
“I looked at [Smith] and said, 'I'm giving you the ball no matter what,'” Samantha Cooper said. “It made it there, she made a good move and she put it in. That's all we could ask for.”
“She's a competitor,” Head Coach Joe Frager said. “We have four or five situational plays that we run and she's always going to factor into those.”
In order to give Smith a chance late into overtime, the Stags (1-1) first had to erase an 11-point deficit that Loyola had built with 6:21 left in the third quarter. And, just like they did in the loss against Sacred Heart, they relied on their defense to keep them afloat. The defensive side responded by not allowing a Loyola field goal for the next 14 minutes of game play with Betz-White finally stopping the 0-for-10 skid with 2:16 left in the fourth quarter.
“I think our defense started everything,” Coach Frager said. “We got a few stops and were able to string some baskets together.”
“Especially when we get a stop, or a shot clock violation, or a turnover, it just energizes us,” Cooper said. “That's the toughest part. Offense is supposed to be considered the easy part so if we can get stops we can go convert on the offensive side. Bringing that energy it just makes it easier to play if we're all hyped and into it together.”
This time the Stags were able to take advantage of their defensive success and went on a 17-6 run over that span, giving them the lead until Betz-White tied the score late in the game. Smith foreshadowed some of her heroics with a layup with 1:58 left in regulation to break the tied score and give the Stags a 45-43 advantage. That lead would go up by one after Kelsey Carey hit one of two free throws.
But in a game filled with big plays, Loyola's Molly Taylor made the first clutch shot with a game-tying 3-pointer with 18 seconds remaining.
In the overtime period, both sides hit most of their free throws without a field goal being scored until Betz-White once again tied the game at 51-51 with 2:35 left on a layup. The score would still be tied with 1:07 left to play and Smith stepped up again by hitting a layup and then converting the ensuing free throw to give Fairfield a one-point lead.
Betz-White scored four-straight points for Loyola until Smith's layup finally put the Stags into celebration mode.
Betz-White led all scorers with 23 points and the 5-3 guard also led all players with 11 rebounds. No other Loyola player tallied more than eight points.
The Stags were a little more balanced with three double figure scorers. Smith led the side with 19 points with Carey following her with 16 and Cooper chipping in 11.
Both sides played a high intensity defense, which saw 37 combined turnovers in the game with the Stags forcing 20 of those miscues.
Fairfield will now head on their first road trip of the season when they travel to Umass Lowell for a meeting with the River Hawks on Thursday at 7pm on ESPN3.
