The Quinnipiac women’s basketball team took on the Fairfield Stags on Thursday night, looking to bounce back after its 86-78 overtime loss to Niagara on Saturday. The Stags hold the best record in the MAAC at 15-1 with an undefeated conference record through seven games, and they enter Hamden on a 13 game winning streak. This was the first meeting of the year between these two teams as Quinnipiac swept the season series last year.
The first quarter started out close and chippy as Fairfield held a 11-8 lead going into the first media timeout with five fouls between the teams.
An early highlight was an Ella O’Donnell behind-the-back, circus and-one shot just over a minute into the game. O’Donnell would go on to leave the game with an apparent injury with around 5:15 to go in the quarter.
Bobcats’ head coach Tricia Fabbri would go on to say that she knew nothing of the severity of the injury and that Ella would need to get an X-Ray.
The Stags took a 23-20 lead into the second quarter after Kendall McGruder hit a buzzer beating three pointer.
The second quarter was more defensively stout as only 22 total points were scored as opposed to the 43-point first quarter. The Stags had a five point lead midway through the game thanks in part to Karson Martin showing out, with a block on a potential three pointer by Nicole Gallagher.
Fabbri called timeout with 2:01 left as play had become very disorganized with turnovers and fouls on both teams. The half was ended by a wild sequence in which Anna Foley hit a three with 10 seconds to go to pull the Bobcats within four, but was immediately answered by McGruder hitting another buzzer beater three pointer to give Fairfield a seven-point halftime lead.
McGruder and Meghan Anderson both led the Stags at halftime with 10 points each. Anna Foley led the Bobcats with 10 points alongside Maria Kealy with seven. Izabela Nicoletti-Leite and Kaety L’Amoreaux had two assists each for Fairfield as well as Kealy and Martin having two assists each for the Bobcats.
The third quarter started out poorly for the Bobcats as the Stags pushed the lead to ten with Fabbri taking a timeout 1:10 into the half. Fairfield really began to pull away late in the third as the lead ballooned to 20 with 3:30 to go.
When asked after game, Fabbri said that the team “needed to do a better job” with the defensive pressure put on by the Stags.
Fouls impacted the Bobcats well into the second half, Anna Foley fouled out with 8:43 to go in the game. Fabbri was visibly pleading with the refs on what she would later say was an “effort play”.
Fairfield’s excellent fundamental basketball was on full display as they passed the ball around with ease. The Bobcats kept fighting back hard, with three-pointers from Ava Sollenne and Grace LaBarge. This effort was for not however, as Quinnipiac would fall to Fairfield 74-59.
Anderson led the Stags with 19 points on 9-13 shooting as well as four steals. She was followed by Kendall MacGruder with 18 points on a 6-11 performance. Janelle Brown also came in double figures with 13 points.
Izabela Nicoletti Leite and Emina Selimovic both had four assists for Fairfield. Selimnovic also led the team with seven rebounds. LaBarge led the Bobcats with 15 points off the bench while starter Foley had 13 points.
Kealy also had double figures with eleven points along with five assists. When asked on how they defended Fairfield phenom Anderson, Fabbri would go onto say that she thought that sophomore guard Bri Bowen “did a hell of a job” covering arguably the best player in the MAAC.
Quinnipiac will look to break what is now a three-game losing streak against the Siena Saints at home on Monday at 4 p.m.
