FAIRFIELD, Conn. – The Fairfield University Women's Basketball team improved to 3-0 in the MAAC, and 9-3 overall, as they downed the Merrimack Warriors 72-48 on Saturday afternoon at Leo D. Mahoney Arena. Meghan Andersen led a trio of Stags in double-figures as she tallied 27, connecting on 11 of her 18 field goal attempts.

"I loved seeing our defense keep going in the right direction," Head Coach Carly Thibault-DuDonis said. "We're putting an emphasis on pressuring the basketball and being disruptive and you can see that in the 23 forced turnovers. I love that regardless of lineups, and we had some heavy road runner lineups, I loved that we showed continuity on the defensive end."
 
The Stags (9-3, 3-0 MAAC) led throughout the game, leading for all but 14 seconds in the contest. Fairfield has now won all three of their conference games by at least 15 points.
 
Fairfield started the game on an offensive tear, hitting nearly 58 percent of their shots in the first quarter and tallied 26 points, their highest scoring period of the game. Andersen notched 11 of her game-high 27 points over the first 10 minutes, while going 5-for-6 from the field.
 
Izabela Nicoletti Leite converted a driving layup at the 5:37 mark of the first quarter to put the Stags up 18-7, and the squad would hold a double-digit advantage the rest of the way.
 
The Stags ran their lead up to 18 after an Andersen 3-pointer closed the first half and led by as many as 27 after an Emina Selimovic 3-point play in the third quarter.
 
Fairfield's road runners were strong finishing around the hoop, accounting for five traditional 3-point plays with Andersen and Raiana Brown accounting for a pair each.
 
After allowing only 37 points against Rider, the Stags held Merrimack to just 18 field goals while blocking a season-high eight shots and swiping 12 steals.
 
Cyanne Coe led the team on the boards for the second-straight game as the freshman road runner hauled in a career-high eight rebounds. In Fairfield's two wins this week, Coe has averaged 9.5 points and 7.0 rebounds per game.
 
Kaety L'Amoreaux and Selimovic joined Andersen in double-figures in scoring. Nicoletti-Leite led the team in assists for the eighth time this season after recording seven dimes on just one turnover. She entered the game ranked seventh in the nation in assist-turnover ratio.
 
Fairfield will next hit the road for a contest against another MAAC unbeaten team as they visit Iona on Thursday at 6pm.