Slow starts, turnovers, and even the stomach flu slowed the Fairfield women’s basketball team over the weekend.
The Stags went 0-2, losing to Marist Sunday afternoon, 59-48, at the Arena at Harbor Yard and falling at Iona 79-60 Friday night. With the two losses, Fairfield dropped to 9-12 overall and 6-6 in the MAAC. The Stags now find themselves in sixth place in conference play with four weeks until the season-ending tournament.
“Every game is critical right now, because you are playing for your seed in the MAAC Tournament,” said head coach Dianne Nolan, who failed to get win number 501. “We still have to play Manhattan who we haven’t even seen yet this season, so every game is critical from here.”
The Stags failed to get off to a good start, trailing at halftime in both games. The trend was especially evident against Marist Sunday.
The Red Foxes came out with suffocating defense against the Stags and were successful even without their preseason player of the year candidate Fifi Camara, who was sent to the bench early with two personal fouls. The Stags tried to keep the gap close with Marist throughout the first half, trailing by as many as six, 19-13 at the 5:49 mark, before cutting the deficit to three by halftime, 27-24.
“This is symbolic of what’s happened with our team, we can close the gap but we are having difficulty getting past that,” Nolan said. “We aren’t mature enough yet to settle down and get past this point.”
The Stags certainly didn’t settle down when they had the basketball. Fairfield committed 48 total turnovers during the two games.
There were some bright spots during the two games, including Baendu Lowenthal’s ’09 25 total points and 11 rebounds.
“I just try and look at the game of the people I play against and try and learn from that,” Lowenthal said. “I’m still a freshman, so I have three years to go. The team is getting comfortable with each other, and since we are a young team we are growing with each other.”
Sabra Wrice’s ’08, the team’s leading scorer, also played well, with 29 total points. The Stags’ second and third leading scorers, Cara Murphy ’06 and Candice Lindsay ’07 were sidelined for the most part with the stomach flu Sunday against Marist. Murphy and Clare Faurote ’06 played limited minutes because of the flu while Lindsay wasn’t with the team because of the ailment.
Fairfield’s next game is Thursday night against Manhattan College at Harbor Yard, it will be televised on ESPN U. The Jaspers are the seventh seed, right behind Fairfield in the conference standings. The Stags have four of their last six games against the top 5 teams in the conference with three of them being at the Arena at Harbor Yard. Between the men and women’s game of the double header, Nolan will be honored for her 500th career victory.
Nolan remembers Carrion
Nolan not only felt the loss of Alex Carrion ’08 from his contributions to the pep band and his bright presence at Harboryard, but on a more personal level as well.
“”I am a mentor in the Ignatian College at Fairfield and I was Alex’s mentor, he was a great kid” Nolan said. “I don’t know if any of the girls personally knew Alex, but they were familiar with him, especially since the pep band is such a special presence for us at our games.”
Like the men, the women’s team will look to acknowledge Alex throughout the remainder of the season.
“We remember Alex and his family in our prayers,” Nolan said. “We have cards going out to the members of the pep band and our team wants to do something as a tribute to Alex in his remembrance.”
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