COLUMBUS, Ohio — For a few moments, the dream was closer than ever. But ultimately, the quest for a program-first NCAA Tournament win will have to wait one more year.
Despite grinding through a tough shooting afternoon to stay within striking distance at the break, Fairfield women’s basketball couldn’t quite keep pace with Notre Dame in the second half, falling 79-60 in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday.
“I’m really proud of the growth of this team from June until now,” said head coach Carly Thibault-DuDonis. “We’ve thrown a lot of adversity at them intentionally to be prepared for this moment, and individually and collectively we’ve grown so much. That’s a great team in Notre Dame that certainly has the capability to go make a run in this tournament.”
The Stags faced some of that adversity early and often in the contest, as the Fighting Irish defense limited the country’s premier three-point shooting attack to just two makes at an 18% clip from long range in the first half.
A big factor in that was Second Team All-American Hannah Hidalgo, whose relentless ball pressure made it difficult for the Stags to generate open looks. Hidalgo finished the game with eight steals.
“We knew going in that that was really [Fairfield’s] whole game plan, to shoot threes,” Hidalgo said. “And they do a great job of making them, so we were really locked in on shutting them down, running them off the line and being intentional with making them score two-points instead of threes.”
Still, the Stags were able to do that enough, combined with a strong start from their own defense, to trail by just eight points a minute before halftime after a layup from junior road runner Meghan Andersen forced a Fighting Irish timeout.
But then, the dam began to break. Over the next 20 seconds, the Stags surrendered a basket, were forced into a turnover by Hidalgo and gave up another score in the ensuing fast break, completely flipping the momentum.
Notre Dame continued to ride that high on the opposite side of the intermission. From the last minute of the first half to the under-five media timeout in the third quarter, the Stags were outscored 15-2.
“We needed to come [out of halftime] with the same defensive energy and intensity,” said Notre Dame head coach Niele Ivey. “Maintaining that lead, extending it, but doing that with our defensive pressure. I didn’t want us to get complacent because I feel like Fairfield is a great team that can go off in bunches with the way they shoot the ball.”
By the time some of those shots started to fall for the Stags late in the second half, it was already too late, and the Irish mostly cruised to the finish line. Hidalgo, after flirting with a quadruple-double, finished the game with 23 points, nine rebounds, six assists and eight steals.
Andersen led the way for the Stags with 21 points, five rebounds, two steals and two blocks.
It was a disappointing finish to what was another banner season for the Stags, but the competitiveness of the game and the team’s willingness to keep battling late in the face of an insurmountable deficit are evidence of the steps the program continues to take towards a milestone win.
“I’m really proud of our fight to stick with it, especially in the fourth quarter when it would’ve been easy to make some different decisions,” Thibault-DuDonis said. “If you had asked me last year, I don’t know if I would have said that. We have very pointedly attacked that all year long, all summer long, all fall, all throughout the season, trying to kind of expose that and create that adversity.”
Through that adversity, the Stags have continued to stack countless achievements and develop an unbreakable bond that makes the loss and the ending of another season an even heavier emotional weight.
That’s especially true for the longest tenured members of the team, Lauren Beach and Janelle Brown, who each played their final game in a Fairfield uniform on Saturday after five and six years with the program, respectively.
“The outcome isn’t what we wanted it to be, but I think the fact that we’re just doing it with each other, doing it for each other too, it just shows how close we are as a team,” Brown said. “I’m glad that we are here. I’m glad that we made the run that we could.”
Even as their careers come to a close, the duo knows that the culture they’ve helped create will keep the team together for a long time after they’re all done playing basketball.
“We talk about being a family. I think it’s not just for show or not just something nice to say, I think it’s really true here with our teammates and our coaches as well,” Beach said. “I told them, everyone in our locker room, they’re all people that I could look forward to seeing, even if I was having a hard day.”
So as the sun sets on another year, and the Stags ready themselves for what stands to be one of their most transformative offseasons yet, they’ll have not just their steps forward on the court, but also the network of love and support they’ve built off of it, to keep them in pursuit of their ultimate goal.
“I would choose this team all day, every day,” Thibault-DuDonis said, “and I’m really excited to keep working with them and I’m excited to be part of our seniors’ lives for the rest of time. That’s what Stags do.”
