NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y. – Behind a career-high 29 points and the 11th double-double of the season by Samantha Cooper, the Fairfield University Women's Basketball was able to zone out 1,500 screaming elementary school kids as they put up their best offensive showing in a  game this year with a 78-68 victory at Iona. The victory is Fairfield's third in their last four outings and brings their MAAC record to 7-5.
 
The Stags (10-13, 7-5 MAAC) led the entire game although they would eventually have to hold on after a 25-point outburst by Iona (1-23, 1-12 MAAC) in the final quarter.
 
The Fairfield post players would combine for 49 points with Khadidiatou Diouf also setting her personal best with 20 points. The duo's importance was shown right away as Diouf tallied 10 points in the first quarter to give the Stags a 16-11 lead.
 
Cooper followed her with nine points in the second quarter to give Fairfield their largest lead at 10 points with two minutes remaining in the half. Iona would close that deficit before the period ended as Fairfield fouled Jayden Eggleston's 3-point shot with one second remaining. The Stags would enter halftime with a 35-27 lead.
 
Eight of those points came from the free throw line, led by Cooper's 5-for-6 showing. Casey Foley swished in her only attempt at the charity stripe as she converted her second 3-point play of the season.
 
Foley would hit all three of her free throws in the game, raising her average in MAAC games to 95 percent as she has connected on 19 of her last 20 attempts from the charity stripe.
 
Fairfield would start the third quarter on a 7-2 run to grab a double-digit lead, a margin they would hold for most of the quarter. The post presence continued to have success in the period as Cooper and Diouf would combine for 15 of the team's 18 points. The only other bucket was a 3-pointer from Macey Hollenshead that came right when the 1,500 school kids got on their feet.
 
The Stags would see their lead drop to single digits for 20 seconds when Alexis Lewis would hit two-straight 3-pointers to get the Gaels within eight at 51-43, but Diouf would end the quarter with a layup.
 
Iona would get within one point as they started the fourth quarter on a 10-1 run and had a chance to tie the contest, but they could not convert the 3-point play. The two teams would exchange baskets to keep the one-point margin until Foley swished in a corner 3-pointer and Cooper followed with a short jumper to get the lead back to seven.
 
The Gaels would score 25 points in the fourth quarter, but whenever the Stags needed a basket Cooper was there. She would tally eight points in the quarter to keep the Stags in the lead.
 
Cooper netted a career-high 29 points and also hauled in a game-high 12 rebounds for her conference leading 11th double-double of the year. Her 12 boards brings her career total to 932, passing Robin Massari for fifth on the program's all-time list.
 
Diouf's 20 points and Sam Kramer's 11 were the only other two double digit performances for the Stags. Macey Hollenshead, Foley, and Kendra Landy combined for 13 of the team's 17 assists.
 
Iona's leading scorer Lewis led the Gaels with 21 points. It is just the third time this conference season that a team's leading scorer surpassed her season mark against the Stags.
 
Joe Frager will look for his 200th win as a Fairfield head coach as his team travels to Manhattan on Saturday at 3pm.