The Fairfield women’s basketball team did not have much to be excited about coming into last weekend’s games. The Stags had dropped their last three games and had fallen to 4-4 in MAAC play.

Fairfield bounced back, however, and ended the weekend especially energized. The Stags went 2-0, defeating St. Peter’s Friday night 69-64 at the Arena at Harbor Yard and dismantling Rider 68-53 Sunday afternoon in New Jersey.

The victory Sunday was head coach Dianne Nolan’s 500th of her career.

“It was a big weekend,” said Nolan. “We have had a roller coaster season so far, so we are just taking every game and every week one at a time.”

The Stags used effective defense and exceptional field goal shooting during Sunday’s game to put down Rider. The Stags shot a scorching 46 percent from the field and held the Broncs to 38 percent shooting. Baendu Lowenthal ’09 had a career-high 18 points on 6-of -9 shooting to lead the Stags.

“We wanted to keep playing hard so that we could get her the win,” said Clare Faurote ’06. “Everyone on the team played in the game so it was nice for everyone to contribute.”

“It was very exciting,” said Candice Lindsay ’07. “Not many people have done it so it was great to be a part of it.”

Fairfield got off to a strong start, leading Rider 29-16 at halftime, and finished the game well, leading by as many as 23 points with 9:10 remaining. The win was Fairfield’s second in as many games. The first came last Friday at home against St. Peter’s.

“St. Peter’s had just beaten the top team in the league in Marist and they had beaten another fine team in Manhattan,” said Nolan. “We knew that they were going to come in and play tenacious on the ball man defense. It wasn’t the prettiest of games but I thought our kids really gutted it out.”

The Stags started slowly, trailing 36-29 at halftime and down by as many as 10 points with 13:10 to go. In a game where it seemed like every other second a foul was called, the Stags kept their composure and finished strong.

“To get any offense generated we had to take it to the hole,” said Nolan. “You know you are going to get a push or shove on every other possession.”

Sabra Wrice ’08 led the comeback charge for the Stags, connecting on clutch field goals down the stretch. Wrice, Fairfield’s leading scorer this season, totaled 20 points to lead all scorers. The Stags had three others score in double figures and again shot the ball well from the field (42 percent).

“We worked the ball around a lot more during the second half,” said Wrice. “Coming off of three losses, you want to win like that in order to boost your confidence and get you ready for the rest of the games.”

With the two victories, the Stags are now 6-4 in MAAC play. Their record is currently good enough for a tie with Iona for fourth place in the conference.

Now, as the Stags enter the second half of the conference season, every game means something, and if the Stags can keep their mistakes to a minimum (they turned the ball over 22 times and won in spite of it last Friday) they could be in the running for a league title and returning to the NCAA’s for the first time since 200..

This makes Friday night’s game with the Gaels all that more important for the Stags when they take to the court in New Rochelle, NY.

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