Fairfield shot 50 percent for the game, including 56 percent in the first half, to defeat the Canisius College women's basketball team 63-52 at Alumni Hall on Friday night. The Golden Griffins fall to 6-12 overall and 2-5 in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.
Freshman Jamie Ruttle led Canisius with 18 points (8-for-11 shooting) and also had six rebounds in 33 minutes. Sophomore Ashley Durham had 12 points while senior Micayla Drysdale had nine points.
"We didn't play well enough as a team tonight. Offensively, we tried to do too much in one-on-one situations. On defense, we didn't play solid team defense," Canisius coach Terry Zeh said. "I don't think it's trying to be selfish, but we just didn't play well enough cohesively."
In a fast-paced first half featuring five called fouls and no free throws, both teams started 5-for-8 from the floor and were tied at 12-12 with 14 minutes left on the clock. The Griffs would only score 10 points the rest of the half as the Stags built a 19-12 lead. Canisius would cut the lead to 25-20 on a layup from Ruttle, but the Stags made their last three shots of the half, including a 3-pointer late in the shot clock from Katelyn Linney and took a 32-22 lead into the locker room.
Neither team could get any offense going early in the second half, and when the Griffs did score on three straight possessions they couldn't get any defensive stops. Fairfield maintained its lead, including a 3-pointer from Linney to go up 43-30 with just under 11 minutes remaining.
The Griffs would cut the lead to 51-43 after a jumper from Ruttle and layup from Durham. Fairfield answered with eight straight points, capped by a 3-pointer from the corner from Joelle Nawrocki to push it to 59-43 and put the game away.
Four Stags reached double figures, with Desiree Pina leading Fairfield (11-6, 4-3 MAAC) with 16 points while Taryn Johnson had 13 points. Linney had 11 points, including 3-for-6 on 3-pointers while Katie Cizynksi had 10 points on 5-for-6 shooting.
Canisius plays at Iona on Sunday, with game time set for 2 p.m.
Notes: Canisius extended its NCAA record of consecutive games with a 3-pointer to 503 games on a 3-pointer by Durham early in the first half... Canisius and Fairfield played for the second time in 20 days, with the Griffs not playing three other MAAC schools yet on the conference schedule... Canisius scored 22 first-half points, the sixth time in the last eight games the Griffs have scored 24 points or fewer in the opening 20 minutes... Fairfield has swept the season series from Canisius for the second straight season... Canisius falls to 3-12 all-time at Alumni Hall... Ruttle scored in double figures for the seventh time in 10 games and is now averaging 11.1 points in conference play... Fairfield was the first Canisius opponent to shoot 50 percent in a game this season
