The Fairfield University women’s basketball team (0-2) played two competitive games this week, including their home opener. After a 53-51 win over Long Island University (0-2) in Brooklyn on Wednesday, Nov. 13 and a 52-51 loss at George Bisacca Court at Alumni Hall to Dartmouth (2-0) on Sunday, Nov. 17, the Stags are now 1-3 on the 2019-20 season.
With a slow start in Brooklyn, the Stags found themselves down 11-9 after the first quarter. Fairfield and LIU went back and forth in the quarter, with the lead constantly shifting until LIU took the lead for the rest of the quarter with three minutes and fifty-two seconds left. The second quarter did not show much improvement. The Sharks held onto the lead for the entire quarter with the score being 27-23 going into the half.
The beginning of the final half did not demonstrate much promise for Fairfield. The lead established by LIU continued to grow throughout the third quarter to 42-35. However, the Stags were not finished yet. Scoring 18 points in the fourth quarter to the Sharks nine, Fairfield regained the lead with one second left after being tied with LIU at 51-51 for the last two minutes of the game.
The Stags game play in Wednesday’s win was led by Callie Cavanaugh ‘21, who had 17 points, and Sam Kramer ‘20 and Lou Lopez-Senechal ‘22, who each had 13 points. In addition, Cavanaugh and Kramer each had seven rebounds and Rachel Hakes ‘22 had five rebounds and five assists. Lopez-Senechal and Cavanaugh each contributed two blocks to the team’s five along with senior Katie Armstrong’s one. Overall, Fairfield went 22 for 56 on field goals, two for eight on three pointers, and seven for 10 on free throws.
LIU was lead by Brandy Thomas, who had 11 points and five rebounds, Kiara Bell who had eight points and seven rebounds, Shyla Sanford who had seven points and three field goals and Jeydah Johnson who had seven points and five rebounds.
Fairfield’s home opener on Sunday did not result in the same exciting outcome as Wednesday game. After a hard fought game, the Stags came up short, losing 52-51 to Dartmouth.
With an aggressive first quarter, the Stags found themselves with a 14-8 lead with contributions from Lopez-Senechal, Kramer and Armstrong. Holding onto the lead into half time, Fairfield found themselves up on Dartmouth 29-25 as graduate student Kendra Landy and Cavanaugh began to contribute to Fairfield game play.
Fairfield’s lead diminished slowly as Dartmouth outscored Fairfield 16-10 in the third quarter, with a score of 41-39 going into the final quarter of the game. As Fairfield and Dartmouth both fought to keep a hold of some kind of lead, time continued to diminish and this game would come down to the final seconds. With two minutes and thirty-three seconds left in the game, Fairfield’s Andrea Hernangomez ‘22 made a good layup, bringing the difference to a one point game with a score of 52-51 Dartmouth. With only two seconds left after a Fairfield timeout, Kramer took the last shot of the game, but was unable to solidify a win for the Stags.
In Sunday’s game, Armstrong led the Stags with 13 points, Kramer contributed with nine, and Lopez-Senechal had eight points. Fairfield went 22 for 60 on field goals, three for 16 on three pointers, and four for five on free throws. Dartmouth was led by Annie McKenna who had 14 points, and Paula Lenart and Asha Taylor each had 10.
Fairfield, who is now 1-3 this season, has a two week break before their next game. On Sunday, Dec. 1, Fairfield will travel to Kingston Rhode Island to play Rhode Island (2-1). Games contributing to the team’s MAAC standings do not start until early 2020. On Thursday, Jan. 2, Fairfield will play Siena (1-3) in Loudonville, NY at 7 p.m. for their first MAAC game.
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