Fairfield takes ‘round 3’ with Quinnipiac by TKO, punches NCAA Tournament ticket

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — Kaety L’Amoreaux couldn’t help but crack a massive smile.

As she brought the ball up the floor, she knew that she was just a minute away from lifting the MAAC Championship trophy for the second consecutive year. The possession ended with Meghan Andersen draining her sixth three of the game, for her 27th point.

L’Amoreaux’s ear-to-ear smile somehow grew, and it was contagious. You could see the teeth of every Fairfield player as they went back on defense, sensing the moment.

When the buzzer sounded, the scoreboard read a resounding 76-53 margin in favor of the reigning champs. A barrage of 15 3-pointers, which was five more than Fairfield (28-4, 19-1 MAAC) had sunk in the previous two MAAC Tournament games combined, built and maintained a double-digit lead that was far too much for Quinnipiac (28-4, 18-2 MAAC) to overcome.

For the first 10 minutes, the two MAAC heavyweights traded blows like Ali and Frazier. The score was knotted at 15 after one of the most exhilarating frames of basketball that anybody has played all year. In the final three quarters, Fairfield became peak Tyson. Knockout blow after knockout blow to take the rubber match that both coaches referred to as “round 3.”

The Stags scored the first 10 points of the second quarter in a flash with two layups from L’Amoureaux, followed by a trey and an and-1 from Andersen, forcing Tricia Fabbri to call timeout.

She’d have to do so again later in the quarter. Sydni Scott hit two threes in a row, and Andersen canned another, building the lead back up to 13 after it had been cut to seven.

The timeout didn’t help. Andersen hit another three, a second killshot of the quarter, and Cyanne Coe put an exclamation point on it to extend the lead to 41-23.

Scott continued to torch the nets in the second half, finishing 6-for-6 from beyond the arc, registering a season-high 18 points.

“I came down the court, passed it to Syd, it went in,” L’Amoreaux said. “Very next play, passed it to Syd, and I was like, ‘Yep, she’s doing it.’”

“You could just hear her screaming for the ball,” Andersen said. “It was wide open, and she was like ‘BALL, BALL,’ I was like, ‘alright.’ She makes it known.”

Scott is one of just a few players on Fairfield’s roster who didn’t win the MAAC with the Stags last season. A transfer from Marshall — where she won the Sun Belt under now-Tennessee head coach Kim Caldwell, she committed to Fairfield on the day of her visit and instantly connected with the staff and her teammates.

On Saturday, it all paid off, as she held her second conference championship trophy in as many years with her best performance of the year.

“In practice, my coaching staff was just telling me to keep moving,” Scott said. “Even if they’re dribbling, either move to the corner or move to the wing. Just follow the ball. That’s what I was doing all day, following the ball.”

The Stags held MAAC Player of the Year Gal Raviv to one of her worst days of the season, shooting 6-22 from the field, and taking away the spots on the court where she scores best.

While Raviv did miss some good looks, it was the different matchups and pressure that Fairfield consistently applied to her that shook her off her game.

“So many different people stepped up and played a huge role,” Fairfield head coach Carly Thibault-DuDonis said. “Kendall McGruder started off on Gal and did a great job. Then we switched Kaety and Syd and had different people on her. Obviously our road runners (the identity that Fairfield uses for its forwards) were switching onto her. We chipped away at it.”

Despite going into the NCAA Tournament with a 31-1 record last season, Fairfield only got a 13 seed. The Stags traveled to take on 4th seed Indiana in Bloomington and were mauled.

The Hoosiers won 89-56, ending a 29-game winning streak, and the Stags’ season. This year, Fairfield was determined to not let that happen again.

That starts with being on a better seed line and not having to play a true road game against a truly elite team. The Stags played a more difficult schedule this year, so despite taking a few more losses, Fairfield is in line for a higher seed. Thibault-DuDonis is adamant that her team should receive an 11 seed, but that’s not the only thing.

The 33-point loss was motivating. Any argument you could make for last year’s team deserving a higher seed is immediately stunted by it. But they didn’t forget it.

“We used the number 33 a lot in the summer and spring,” Thibault-DuDonis said. “All summer long in the weight room and in individual workouts, we wanted to come back and close that margin. We did things like in individual workouts and team workouts that you had to win by three, or that the shooting drill was to 33, and it was constantly a reminder that we want more.”

Despite losing Nellie Brown, the reigning MAAC Player of the Year, to injury in December, the Stags actually have better predictive metrics than last season and continued to improve throughout the year.

Brown is still very present and extremely beloved as a leader for this team.

“She found another way to lead,” Andersen said. “Even though she’s not playing. It hurts that she’s not with us on the court, but to know that she’s got our back, it means everything to us.”

Brown is a key piece of the culture that Thibault-DuDonis and staff have built over the last three seasons, and it’s a culture that is only continuing to grow.

Due to her success at Fairfield, Thibault-DuDonis has become a hot name on high-major coaching boards, but she’s not even thinking about leaving her post. On Friday, it was reported that she’d turned down the opportunity to speak with leadership at Wisconsin and has rebuffed other schools as well.

“We are trying to build one of the best women’s basketball programs in the country,” she said, shouting out FU president Mark Nemec and athletic director Paul Schlickmann. “It’s why I came to Fairfield. It’s why all the women on our roster chose to be here and stay. Because we know we can do it.”

On the dark side of March, Tricia Fabbri’s Bobcats finished the season with a 28-4 record, and wins over Harvard, Princeton, Vermont, and more, but are unlikely to get a sniff of an at-large bid.

Despite three wins in Quadrant 2, Quinnipiac’s resume still lacks a Quad-1 win, as well as holding a Quadrant-4 loss, back in January against Mount St. Mary’s.

But if Thibault-DuDonis had her way, the Bobcats would get a spot in the field.

“(I would tell the selection committee to) Watch them,” she said. “You can’t tell me there’s 64 teams better than them. They are skilled, Gal Raviv is one of the best players in the country, hands down, and they’ve got a really balanced team. There’s been a lot of talk about three teams from the Ivy League, they beat two of those teams. They deserve to be in the Tournament.”

But they won’t.

And Fairfield will.

Except this time, they’re ready to make noise.

“We’re excited to see who we draw,” Thibault-DuDonis said. “I know this team is hungry for more.”