Junior road runner Meghan Andersen backed up her career night against Villanova with another 30-point performance to lead Fairfield women’s basketball (2-0) to an 88-60 win over Lehigh (1-1) in the team’s home opener on Saturday night.
Andersen connected on six three-pointers, a personal best, and added six rebounds, four steals and two blocks to the stat sheet.
“I just lean on my teammates and have their support and trust,” Andersen said in the postgame press conference. “And our ball movement, that’s our game, that’s who we are and I think that really gets the momentum going for each of us.”
The Stags’ ability to spread the wealth was key in kickstarting the high-powered offensive showing, with 24 total assists on 32 made baskets. Leading the way individually was first-year Christina Pham, who tallied six assists to go with 11 points in her collegiate debut after missing the opener with an injury.
“I love how unselfish we were,” said head coach Carly Thibault-DuDonis. “Christina I thought was great. She had six assists and only one turnover. I thought that was awesome to see how she distributed the basketball.”
Joining Pham in scoring their first career points were first-years Milou Van Vliet, who finished with three, and Keyarah Gregory, who connected on a free throw after entering the game late in the fourth quarter.
The Stags used a frenetic pace of play to widen the gap on what was a competitive game through the first 10 minutes, scoring 29 points off 16 forced turnovers and building runs of 11-3 and 18-2 at the end of the second and third quarters.
“I think [pace] is something we’ve been big on in the past, but we’re really doubling down on that this year with bringing in more ball handlers,” said junior guard Kaety L’Amoreaux, who finished second on the team to Andersen with 16 points. “I think that’s something you saw in this game, especially with our conditioning, knowing that we’re going to really hit teams in the second and third quarter.”
On the defensive end, the Stags limited the Mountain Hawks to 33 percent shooting from the floor, including holding junior forward Whitney Lind to just eight points on one of nine shooting attempts. Lind led Lehigh with 25 points in their season-opening win against Cincinnati on Tuesday.
The Stags also saw the return of graduate guard and former Conference Player of the Year Janelle Brown, who tallied two rebounds and two assists in limited action as she works her way back from an ACL injury last December.
Other key contributors were junior guard Jill Huerter, who finished with nine points, three rebounds and three assists, and sophomore road runner Cyanne Coe, who added 10 points and eight rebounds.
Coe exited the game with just under five minutes remaining in the fourth quarter due to an apparent left foot injury, but was able to walk around the court under her own power after the game was over. Thibault-DuDonis described the injury as something she is “not too concerned about” postgame.
The Stags will now look ahead to a trip to Las Vegas next week for the WBCA Challenge, a new multi-team event with four total games to be played across two days at Michelob ULTRA Arena. Their opening matchup of the event is set for Thursday, Nov. 13, against South Florida, with tip-off at 6 p.m. EST.
