FAIRFIELD, Conn. – Right before the Fairfield University Women's Basketball left the huddle to begin the second half, Head Coach Joe Frager gave them a challenge.
 
"I said, 'I don't care about the mistakes but in every possession I need you to show me your heart," Frager said.
 
The Stags responded with their best offensive half of the season by scoring 44 second half points and coming back from a 10-point deficit to defeat UMass Lowell 78-67 on the George Bisacca Court at Alumni Hall. Samantha Cooper led the Stags with a career-high 24 points, 16 of those coming in the final 20 minutes.
 
"I think we had a really bad first half to be honest," Cooper said. "But I think we showed a lot of heart in the second half. I think we showed that even though we're young we could play with a lot of heart, we can run the ball, and I'm just really proud of us coming back from that."
 
The visiting River Hawks (2-5) built a 10-point lead after making their first basket of the second half. The reason for that advantage was a 25-point showing in the second quarter as the Stags (2-5) were held to just 11 points.
 
Coming out of the locker room, and after the challenge from their coach, the Stags ran the floor, and shared the ball, which showed with nine assists on 13 made baskets in the second frame.
 
Fairfield made their big run after the third quarter media timeout where they trailed 50-42 with 4:51 left in the third. The Stags would close out the quarter on a 12-2 run with Cooper, Casey Foley, and Kristen McLaughlin all tallying lay-ups.
 
The River Hawks would cut the Fairfield advantage to one after a Kayla Gibbs lay-up made the score 56-55 with 8:44 remaining. The Stags would once again show their heart by connecting on five of their next seven shots including 3-pointers from Cooper and Sam Kramer to extend the lead to seven.
 
Kramer was the Stag who orchestrated their up-tempo play in the second half, dishing out four of her career-high seven assists in the frame. Kramer would also add 19 points, joining Cooper (24) and Foley (11) as the Stags in double figures.
 
The Stags also relied on their defense to push up the tempo, and they responded forcing 12 UMass Lowell turnovers in the second frame. Macey Hollenshead was at the forefront of the defensive stand, picking up three steals in the half.
 
Fairfield will now hit the road when they take part in the Jesuit Basketball Spotlight when they travel to Boston College on Sunday at 1pm.