VILLANOVA, PA. – In women's basketball action on Wednesday night at the Finneran Pavilion, the visiting Fairfield Stags tallied a 75-63 road win over the Villanova Wildcats. With the loss, Villanova falls to 1-1, while Fairfield is 1-0 on the young season.
Fairfield started fast, connecting on five of its first seven shots to take a 13-1 lead. The Wildcats finished the period by out-scoring the Stags by an 8-4 margin to make it a 17-9 game after the first quarter.
Junior Brynn McCurry and sophomore Jasmine Bascoe accounted for all eight points for Villanova with both scoring four apiece.
Three Fairfield players combined to score all 17 Stag points with Meghan Anderson tallying seven points and Jillian Huerter and Kaety L'Amoreaux scoring five each.
Fairfield led 28-17 midway through the second quarter, when the Wildcats used a 9-2 run to cut the Stag lead to 30-26. The seven Villanova points included a pull-up jumper and a three-ball by Bascoe, a lay-up by Kelsey Joens and a 15-foot jumper by McCurry.
Fairfield closed out the first half scoring when Cyanne Coe was fouled shooting a half court shot as the time expired. Coe made two of three from the foul line to send the teams to halftime with Fairfield leading 32-26.
Led by Bascoe and forward Kylee Watson, the Wildcats started the second half on a 17-7 spurt to take a 43-39 lead. Bascoe had 12 of the 17 points, while Watson scored the other five.
With the momentum on the Wildcats side, Fairfield fought back and scored seven of the game's next nine points to take a 46-45 lead with 2:25 remaining in the third stanza. Following a three-ball by Wildcat sophomore Dani Ceseretti that gave her team a 51-48 advantage, the Stags closed out the third quarter scoring when Kaety L'Amoreaux registered a conventional three-point play to tie the game at 51-51 after three.
Bascoe picked-up her fourth foul with 8:54 remaining in the game and had to sit for the next 4:01. The Stags took advantage of Bascoe's absence and ran off seven straight points to open-up a 58-51 advantage at the 6:14 mark. Andersen was dominant in the run, scoring all seven of Fairfield's points.
After Fairfield guard Jillian Huerter drained a three to put the Stags up 64-56, Villanova got a basket and foul from Bascoe and a jump shot from Kennedy Henry to slice the lead to 65-
61 at the 3:06 mark. Anderson the answered for Fairfield with a baseline jumper to make it a 67-61 game. Following a Stag defensive stop, Anderson connected on two free throws and Fairfield led 69-61 with 2:11 on the clock.
Bascoe led the Wildcats in the loss with 30 points and eight rebounds. Watson reached double figures with 11 points.
Fairfield was paced by Andersen who had a game-high 35 points. She was 12-of-19 from the field, 3-of-6 from three-point range and 8-of-11 from the foul line. L'Amoreaux added 17 points for the Stags.
For the game, Villanova was 24-of-57 from the field (42.1%), 5-of-20 from three-point range (25.0%) and 10-of-13 from the foul line (76.9%). Each team had 33 rebounds.
Villanova will travel to Toronto on Sunday to take on Virginia Commonwealth. Game time is set for 7 p.m.
