Box Score LOUDONVILLE, N.Y. – Siena's high pressure defense forced 10 first half turnovers causing the Stags to bend, but they never broke. Fairfield used a 28-point third quarter which featured Kristin Schatzlein connecting on all three of her 3-point attempts and the Stags started their grueling road trip with a 71-51 victory, their eighth-straight win.
“Give a lot of credit to Siena, they played extremely hard…but our kids settled down at halftime,” Head Coach Joe Frager said. “I thought we played a calm and systematic third quarter to get the job down. I thought Schatz was outstanding. I challenged her a little bit during the first timeout and as a senior she really rose to the occasion.”
It was that third quarter where the Stags (16-10, 11-6 MAAC) found their energy, an intangible they were missing through the first 20 minutes where they turned the ball over ten times and were getting out-rebounded 8-2 at one point.
That third quarter featured 28 Fairfield points (tying the most they have scored in any quarter this season, five forced turnovers, and a 63 percent shooting percentage. Fairfield took over the game at that point.
“I think you have to chalk it up to growth,” Frager said. “That first half in the first third of the season would have no doubt snowballed for us…We are practicing better now. We were flying around yesterday in practice, the intensity was really high and I think that helped us weather what went on in the first half.”
Siena's (12-15, 9-1 MAAC) high energy defense right from the opening whistleas the Saints grabbed eight of the game's first 10 rebounds and forced five Fairfield turnovers in the first quarter.
Siena had an extra stride in their step as they celebrated their annual Pink Zone game which raises money for breast cancer research.
The Stags were able to stay within striking distance however, with five first quarter points by Schatzlein and four from Casey Smith.
Besides the five turnovers and being limited to five rebounds, the Stags had other mountains to climb over the first 10 minutes. Leading scorer Kelsey Carey played in just three minutes during the opening period after picking up two quick fouls.
Her replacement Kristine Miller would also go down with two early fouls three minutes into the second quarter.
The Stags persevered and were able to tie the game four times in the first 20 minutes, with the highlight coming on Schatzlein's 3-pointer with 3:45 left in the second quarter. Fairfield would grab their first lead of the game after two Samantha Cooper free throws gave the Stags a 22-20 lead. Fairfield would score the next four points to lead 26-20, but two fouls under the one-minute mark gave the Saints four free throw attempts, and they converted on each one and trailed by just two going into the locker room.
After making just three of their first 10 shots, the Stags connected on six of their final 12 attempts and four of their last five in the first half and ended up shooting 41 percent for the frame.
That energy was more than matched when the Stags came out in the second half as the Stags found their shooting touch. Schatzlein, Lizzy Ball, and Cooper all hit a 3-pointer to open up the largest lead of the game for either side at 40-33.
But the quarter belonged to Schatzlein. The senior hit all three of her 3-point attempts and tallied 11 total points to record a new career-high 23 points going into the final quarter.
Overall, in fact, Fairfield connected on 10 of their 16 shot attempts in the quarter.
That helped the Stags grab a 54-36 lead going into the final quarter. In that final quarter, the Stags used a late run to give them more than enough breathing room in securing their eighth-straight victory, their longest winning streak since the 2009-10 season.
In the game, Schatzlein led everyone with a career-high 26 points on 9-for-13 shooting and also added a personal-best five steals and dished out four assists. Samantha Cooper had her seventh career double-double with 14 points and 12 boards. The Stags are now 6-1 when she records a double-double. After turning the ball over four times in the opening half, Ball settled down and did not turn the ball over in the second half, and finished with five assists, five points, and five rebounds. Smith added 16 points, the 12th-straight game with at least nine points.
For Siena, captain Meghan Donohue led the Saints with 16 points on 7-for-11 shooting while Symone Kelly grabbed a team-high eight rebounds.
With the win, the Stags secured their ninth-straight MAAC winning season under Joe Frager, who remains the only conference coach in history to have nine-straight winning conference records to begin a career.
The Stags will continue their grueling road trip with a meeting with Marist on Sunday at 2pm.
