Fairfield women’s basketball fell to MAAC powerhouse St. Peter’s 62-55 on Tuesday night during an ugly game in which the two teams combined for 44 turnovers.
“It was a hard-fought game,” said head coach Dianne Nolan. “We made mistakes, but St. Peter’s had to work hard. This loss doesn’t devastate us. It shows that we can play with any team in the MAAC.”
The loss drops Fairfield to 5-6 in the conference, 9-11 overall. The Stags were clearly hurting from the double-overtime loss to Loyola on Sunday, and their tired legs allowed St. Peter’s to dominate on the boards, out-rebounding Fairfield 39-22. St. Peter’s starting front court also scored 49 of the team’s 62 points.
Still, Fairfield was never really out of reach in a game dominated by scoring streaks. Although the Peahens led by as much at 14 points with approximately seven minutes left in the game, Fairfield displayed a trademark resilience to even be in contention in the final minutes.
“We didn’t give up,” said sophomore point guard Marybeth Chartier. “We worked so hard to stay with them so long. We stuck with it and played hard.” Chartier finished with ten points and five assists.
Overall, both teams were dismal from the field, Fairfield 25-52 and St. Peter’s 23-54. Fairfield was also a troubling 4-8 from the free throw line.
Junior Schrene Isidora led the Stags with 19 points, but fell into foul trouble midway through the second half, sitting for many of the final minutes. “We just wanted to come out and try to play hard,” she said. “We made some big stops but never converted on them.”
Although Fairfield is struggling because of a tough schedule, Nolan is also concerned about the lack of depth in the back court. “It’s been a tough stretch for us. We haven’t had a lot of rest between games, especially with our [lack of] guard depth.”
Nolan experimented with different players in the back court Tuesday, including Cathy Dash and Yvette Rutherford, but has not made a permanent decision about the future at those positions. Fairfield also played the entire game in a 2-3 zone defense, which worked well overall, but left the Stags vulnerable at times to outside shooting. At one point in the first half, St. Peter’s Felicia Harris hit three straight three-pointers.
Fairfield next faces Loyola at the Arena on Saturday afternoon before going on the road to face Marist next Tuesday at 7 pm.
Leave a Reply