FAIRFIELD, Conn. – A raucous crowd of nearly 2,000 fans gave the Fairfield University Women's Basketball team the passion and energy they needed to rally from an early double-digit deficit to overtake the Sacred Heart Pioneers by a 69-58 victory and clinch at least a share of the MAAC Regular Season Championship.
Meghan Andersen led all Fairfield scorers with her first double-double of the season with 17 points and 10 rebounds while also swatting a career-high seven blocks.
"Our game mentality is still one game at a time," Head Coach
Carly Thibault-DuDonis said. "It's what we always do. It's easy to look ahead and think about what's next but we know that every game matters. Not only does it matter but how we show up and how we play. We want to be playing our best basketball right now so we've never really looked too far ahead."
The Stags (24-3; 18-0 MAAC) trailed by as many as 12 with 4:39 left in the second quarter. Fairfield would then make their first critical run scoring 16 of the final 21 points of the first half to close that gap to just one point 38-37.
Five different Stags scored buckets during that stretch, starting with an Andersen 3-pointer and capped by an
Emina Selimovic turnaround jumper with two seconds left.
Kendall McGruder connected on a huge answer back 3-pointer to bring the Stags within single digits in the final two minutes of the half.
Sacred Heart would give the crowd some tense moments in the second half, increasing their one-point lead to seven with an 8-2 run in the first three minutes.
The Fairfield defense would awaken by holding the Pioneers off the scoreboard for the next five minutes as they amassed a 14-0 run.
Raiana Brown had the biggest moments during that stretch by tallying six-straight points including the two free throws to tie and take Fairfield's first lead of the night.
The biggest highlight of her night was an emphatic layup through traffic while also picking up the foul and increasing the Fairfield lead to five.
Sydni Scott would grab an offensive rebound off the ensuing free throw and swish through a corner 3-pointer to put the Stags ahead 54-46.
Sacred Heart would pull within four in the final five minutes on a Ny'Ceara Pryor 2-pointer but Andersen would answer right back with a triple to end the upset bid.
Andersen led a quartet of Stags in double figures with 17 points going 7-for-12 from the field and 3-for-5 from deep. She also grabbed a season-high 10 rebounds and swatted a career-high seven blocks.
As a team, the Stags tallied 11 blocks, the most in the Thibault-DuDonis era.
McGruder finished with 13 points with three trifectas.
Kaety L'Amoreaux tallied 12 points, three assists, three steals, and one big block off a Pryor shot that sent the Mahoney crowd into an uproar.
The Stags have now clinched at least a share of their sixth MAAC Regular Season Title in program history and their third in the last four years. Fairfield will have a chance to win the title outright when they host Siena on Senior Night in a game that will be broadcasted nationally on ESPNU.
