Two weeks ago, the Fairfield women’s basketball team and Head Coach Dianne Nolan seemed to be energized and eager to move forward after Nolan achieved her 500th career victory.

But since then, the Stags have been anything but, losing their last four games and dropping into a tie for seventh place in the MAAC with only four games remaining.

“Right now we just want to win no matter what number it is,” Nolan said. “We have to keep working.”

Last week the Stags’ losses were especially tough, losing in front of a national audience at Manhattan on ESPNU Thursday night. The Stags’ Achiles’ heel all season has been their inability to hold onto the basketball, but against the Jaspers, they faired worse than usual in the turnover category, committing a season-high 29. They followed up that performance by shooting only 28 percent in a loss to Canisius at the Arena at Harbor Yard on Saturday.

Though the Stags’ 19-turnover performance against Canisius actually lowered their season average, their inability to make good, smart passes was not lost on Nolan.

“Turnovers have been a huge problem,” Nolan said. “The are symbolic of our players not having experience playing with each other. They have to be limited though because they give opponents more confidence.”

Another downfall for the Stags has been their shooting percentage from the free-throw stripe. The Stags shot just 53.8 percent against Manhattan and 68.2 percent against Canisius.

Coming into last week’s games, the Stags were second to last in the MAAC in free throw shooting percentage at 64.5 percent.

“Free-throw shooting has a lot to do with what is happening from the neck up,” Nolan said. “We just need to relax and focus.”

Career-high Trouble

Nolan is not the only one scratching her head after winning her 500th game. Usually when someone achieves a career-high in a statistical category in a game in any sport for his or her team, the outcome for that team is a win. But there is something about the combination of Cara Murphy ’06 career-highs and Canisius that does not sit well for the Stags. Murphy scored a career-high 21 points Saturday versus the Golden Griffins and the Stags lost at home, 76-62. The same thing happened Jan. 20 in Buffalo when Murphy scored a then career-high 20 and the Stags lost 85-73. So how is this happening? A closer look at the box score from Sunday’s game may reveal at least part of the answer: Murphy, the team’s starting point guard, took a team-high 16 shots and had no assists.

Fantastic freshman

There has been one consistent positive during the Stags’ recent four-game losing streak: the play of Baendu Lowenthal ’09. Lowenthal, who was named the MAAC rookie of the week last week for the third time this season, has averaged 13.2 points per game during her last four games and is putting together a very impressive resume for the MAAC Rookie of the Year award, which is given out at a press conference before the conference tournament, which starts March 3 in Albany, N.Y.

The Riverside, NJ, native has amassed 8 points per game on the season, while leading the team in field goal percentage at 46 percent. Lowenthal has not just been an offensive threat, however. She has also led the Stags with 5.6 rebounds per game.

“I try to learn from every game,” said Lowenthal following the Marist game on Feb. 5. “I still have time to grow. I have three more years.”

She has been one of our anchors offensively and defensively this season,” Nolan said. “She is having an amazing freshman year.”

Home Cooking?

The Stags will play three of their last four games on their schedule at home, where they are 4-5 overall and 3-3 in conference play. Those games are also all against MAAC schools that are ahead of Fairfield in the standings. If the Stags take care of business at home, they would ensure themselves of at best a first round bye in the tournament.

About The Author

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.