LEXINGTON, Ky. – The two-time defending MAAC Champions Fairfield University Women's Basketball team was eliminated from the NCAA Tournament with an 85-41 setback against fifth-seeded Kansas State. Fairfield ends their season with a 28-5 overall record after successfully defending their conference title.
 
"Hats off to Kansas State," Head Coach Carly Thibault-DuDonis said. "That's a really, really good team. Obviously, they played a lot of their season without their All-American post, and we had the honor of playing against her today. For us, I'm disappointed in -- particularly the second half, I thought we showed some fight early on. The second quarter for us is a little bit more, I think, definitive of what Fairfield basketball is about. I thought we scrapped. I thought we made everything really hard for them in the paint, but not consistently."
 
In their seventh appearance in the Big Dance, the Stags could not find their footing on defense with Kansas State starting hot from the field, hitting eight of their first nine shots to grab an early 17-4 lead.
 
Fairfield's defense weathered the storm as the Wildcats would go just 3-for-19 shooting over the next 10 minutes of game action as the Stags cut the deficit to single digits.
 
Kendall McGruder began the mini-run for the Stags with a 3-pointer and Jillian Huerter followed with a layup over her defender to put the scored at 17-9.
 
K-State led by as many 15 points in the first half after a 3-pointer by Temira Poindexter but was quickly answered back by an Emina Selimovic triple to put the score at 37-25 going into the half.
 
The Wildcats would find their footing after their drought, opening up a 21-point lead by hitting nine of 16 shots which included a 7-0 run. That run was stopped by a Raiana Brown layup.
 
Kansas State took control in the third quarter, outscoring the Stags 29-6.
 
Kaety L'Amoreaux paced the Fairfield offense with 11 points with Raiana Brown following with six.
 
In the season, the Stags netted 290 3-pointers, the second-most in program history. Fairfield also tallied 2,373 points, the third most in a single-season. Fairfield also secured the program's first-ever win over a SEC opponent while also defeating teams from the ACC and Big East.
 
Fairfield highlighted their season with their second-straight MAAC title and their sixth in program history. Fairfield secured their seventh appearance in the Big Dance and their third in the last four years.