ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — Beating the same opponent three times in one season is always a challenge. Beating that opponent for a second time in less than a week is even tougher. But as it often is, Fairfield women’s basketball was up for the task.
Recently crowned Conference Player of the Year Kaety L’Amoreaux scored 21 points and pulled down six rebounds to lead the 25th ranked Stags to a 69-53 win over Sacred Heart in the MAAC Championships Quarterfinals on Friday afternoon.
The performance was a major offensive bounce back for L’Amoreaux, who went 63 percent from the field after shooting just 23 percent in the regular season finale against the Pioneers last weekend.
“Last time out I got with my coaches after, and it was kind of just like one of those nights that it wasn’t going in,” L’Amoreaux said. “I think the biggest thing is just letting it go and knowing that I’m a good shooter, the ball’s gonna go in, and my teammates believe in me, so there’s no reason not to believe in myself.”
After a pair of regular season matchups that were muddied by scrappy defense from both teams, Friday afternoon’s contest looked for a while like it might be the opposite. Both teams came out scorching hot, opening the game making seven of their first nine shots, ending with a 15-14 advantage for the Stags at the under-five media timeout.
The offenses began to regress back to the mean from there, however, and the Stags defense clamped down to limit the Pioneers to just two made field goals over the next 12 minutes of game time en route to a 15-2 run at the start of the second quarter.
“We knew that we were gonna have to come in and be really disruptive and disciplined, and I thought we had some lulls in that as well today,” said head coach Carly Thibault-DuDonis, “but we had to be able to take them out of what they want to do. Playing against dribble drive is a unique style… and we had to have pretty solid attention to detail to keep them out of the paint. I thought as the game went on we improved, especially in that second and third quarter.”
The pace of play slowed again for most of the third quarter, as both teams missed a number of open looks from deep and from the rim. But once again, the Stags leaned on their defense to jumpstart their offense, turning steals into fast break points that keyed a 9-0 run in the last minute and change of the quarter.
That set up a 54-33 lead heading into the fourth, which the Stags rode all the way to the finish line. In the end, it was a comfortable win for a team eager to turn in a good performance after a number of nailbiters in the opening rounds of this tournament the last two years.
“It feels amazing to be back here,” said junior road runner Meghan Andersen. “It’s just an entirely different environment from what we’re used to playing in. I’m just incredibly grateful to be able to do it with this team.”
Andersen, a unanimous selection for her third straight All-MAAC First Team this week, supplemented L’Amoreaux’s effort with 16 points, four rebounds and four blocks. Sophomore road runner Cyanne Coe joined the duo in double figures with 10 points.
Friday’s win also served as Thibault-DuDonis’s 100th victory in just her fourth season at the helm of the program.
“This is such an amazing place. It is so special for so many reasons, and we just talked about it in the locker room, but there’s so many people that go into making a milestone like that happen,” Thibault-DuDonis said. “There’s so many people that believe in what we are building, and this is just the beginning. I hope this is the first of many milestones like this.”
The Stags will now enjoy a day off, courtesy of their top two seed, before taking the court again on Sunday afternoon, one game closer to a third consecutive MAAC Championship. Tip-off against the winner of Merrimack and Mount St. Mary’s is set for 2:30 p.m.
