FAIRFIELD, Conn. – The Fairfield University Women's Basketball team held off a tough and feisty Saint Peter's Peacocks squad with a 52-46 victory to stay undefeated in Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) play. The win also extends the nation's second longest active winning streak to 19-straight.
 
"We'll take the win and learn from it," Head Coach Carly Thibault-DuDonis said. "It was ugly certainly but we need to do a better job at taking care of the basketball. We paid a lot of attention to that over the last few weeks and I don't think we did a good job of that today. Credit Saint Peter's defense for that but thankfully our defense showed up. We got some offense from our defense in turning them over early which gave us a boost."
 
For the first time in MAAC play, the Stags (21-1; 13-0 MAAC) trailed at the end of the first quarter with the Peacocks grabbing an 11-10 advantage after the first 10 minutes.
 
Saint Peter's started the game on a 7-0 run and held the Stags without a point until Kendall McGruder swished through a 3-pointer at the 6:35 mark.
 
Fairfield would not gain the lead until Emina Selimovic connected on the first bucket of the second quarter to put the score at 12-11.
 
The Stags would out-score the Peacocks 17-8 in the second quarter, the only period where that topped Saint Peter's. Izabela Nicoletti-Leite came up huge during the period, connecting on three of her four shot attempts, including a 3-pointer that would put the Stags up for good at the 3:46 mark.
 
Selimovic also had a productive quarter, going 3-for-3 including a lay-up that put the Stags up double-digits late in the quarter.
 
Saint Peter's would tie the game with a 10-0 run in the third quarter that knotted the score at 29-29. Fairfield would follow with a quick 4-0 spurt on layups from Lauren Beach and Selimovic. The Stags gained a little breathing room after a 6-0 run that was capped by a Nicole Gallagher layup.
 
The Fairfield lead would be as little as three in the fourth quarter until McGruder connected on the two biggest buckets of the game including a shot clock buzzer-beating long-range shot with 4:31 to play.
 
The Stags hit only 18 field goals with Nicoletti-Leite and Selimovic combining for eight of those buckets. Nicoletti-Leite led the team with 12 points while also dishing out three assists and recording five steals. McGruder swished through three 3-pointers, including the two biggest of the game in the fourth.
 
Fairfield has now connected on 200 3-pointers this season for the first time in program history. They are also the 36th MAAC team to ever reach that number.
 
Defensively, the Stags held the Peacocks to 46 points, the fifth-straight game (and the 10th time this season) they have held a team to under 50 points.
The Stags will look to build on the win when they travel to Mount St. Mary's for a Saturday afternoon game at 2pm.