Historic milestone
Fairfield off to best start in program history
FAIRFIELD — Carly Thibault-DuDonis had a vision for what she wanted her Fairfield University women’s basketball team to look like in her second season and went about building it.
The East Lyme High graduate had a good foundation when she arrived here to replace Joe Frager, who led the Stags to a MAAC championship and an NCAA tournament appearance in his final season before retiring in 2022. But after a 15-15 first year, it was time for Thibault-DuDonis to do things her way.
She added four freshmen and three transfers to a group that returned three starters. As Fairfield passed the midway point of the regular season by beating Siena 78-73 at Mahoney Arena on Saturday, it was right where it wanted to be at 14-1 overall and at the top of the MAAC standings at 6-0 having won 12 in a row overall.
And the Stags seem headed in the right direction as they move forward.
“We have an incredibly selfless team,” ThibaultDuDonis said after the Stags’ win over Iona Thursday night. “That’s something that not only did we inherit from a great group of women that Coach Frager recruited, we got very fortunate with that, but we also intentionally recruited people that fit that mold. Anybody that came here knew they wanted to be part of something bigger than themselves. That’s are No. 1 core value as a program. The cool thing is they have got teammates on their right and left that look out for them. Then the teammates return the favor by having your back.”
In fact, Fairfield is in a place it’s never been. When the Associated Press poll was released on Monday, there were the Stags in the also receiving votes with. two points thanks to a pair of 25thplace votes from the nationwide media panel. It was the their first mention in the poll in program history.
But AP votes and January winning streaks won’t get the Stags to their hoped for final destination, which is a MAAC tournament title and the NCAA automatic bid that comes with it. There’s still a long way to go. After Saturday they have 14 regular-season games, all in the conference, remaining.
“For me, I know it’s a
cliche, but I've urged the team to stay in the moment and take it day-byday, game-by-game,” Thibault-DuDonis said. “It's easy to get caught up in the hype and excitement and what's ahead, but at the end of the day we know we have to win our league to do what we want to do. I came here and my staff came here to help this program get on a national stage. We're in a position to do that but we're only scratching the surface right now. We have a lot of work to do.”
Fairfield opened the season with two wins before dropping a threepoint decision to Vanderbilt in Nashville. The Commodores are off to a 16-1 start — their best in 31 years — and could break into the Top 25 with a win over Missouri Sunday.
The Stags rebounded with a rout of Rutgers from the Big Ten. Then in a two-week stretch they rolled past Central Connecticut State before beating crosstown rival Sacred Heart in overtime, St. John's out of the Big East, and Fordham out of Atlantic-10, the last three wins coming by a total of 13 points. Their five MAAC wins coming into the Siena game were by double figures.
“The biggest improvement has been how well we've played together,” Fairfield graduate student guard Izabela NicolettiLeite said. “In the beginning we had a lot of new players, a lot of freshmen, so it took some time to figure it out and learn how to play with each other. But now we know that we have each other's back, know we'll come in and someone will step up for us.
“At the end of the day we have great coaches who know exactly what to tell us to get us to respond. We want to win championships. So everyone buys in and does what they need to in order to help us win championships. Everyone believes in each other and that's what Fairfield is about.”
Fairfield was a good defensive team a year ago, but its balanced offense with its quick pace of play and depth have made it championship
While still ranking second in the MAAC in points allowed (54.0) behind Manhattan entering the weekend, the Stags topped the conference in scoring (75.4), field-goal percentage (47.6), assists (18.1), and assist-to-turnover ratio (1.0) entering the weekend.
Nine of the 12 have active players have started at least one game and average double-figure minutes and 10 have had at least one double-figure scoring game.
“We hardly ever play anyone over 30 minutes, maybe one in a game at most,” Thibault-DuDonis said. “So we're able to play at a fast pace without getting tired and we're able to wear out the other team. Our defense will set the tone. A lot of people will talk about our offense and we're able to score 75 a game but that's dictated on the defensive end.
“The biggest for us has been finding chemistry in our offense. Our defense was ahead of our offense early in the season and we've found our stride as far as taking care of the basketball and where our looks are in motion. We're a good scoring team that's willing to pass up good shots for great shots.”
Senior guard Janelle Brown, an all-MAAC third-team pick a year ago, is playing at an allconference level again. Then there are the newcomers.
Transfers Emina Selimovic (Siena) and Kendall McGruder (North Texas) along with freshmen Meghan Andersen and Kaety L'Amoreaux joined Brown in the starting lineup for the fourth straight game against Iona. But go down the list to transfer Nicole Gallagher (Bryant) or Nicoletti-Leite or junior Lauren Beach or freshman Karly Fischer. They've helped fill in the holes the Stags had, particularly on offense. The newcomers have accounted for more than 70 percent of the team's points.
“We added seven scorers to our team and that was designed to be able to play a five-out motion where you have to pick your poison who you're going to come off of and help,” Thibault-DuDonis said. “There was a lot of contenders. thought put into how we were going to play and how we wanted to play going forward. I won't say I'm surprised by the fact that we do have a lot of scorers.
“They share the ball so well. And on any given night it could be Iza's night, it could be Emina's night, it could be Nelly, or Meg ... I think about everyone has had a moment this year. That's a testament to them to be willing to give up self for team. It sounds so cheesy but I'm having so much fun. It's easy to enjoy the process with this group.”
The shining star of the newcomers is Andersen, a freshman forward.
The native of Wantagh, N.Y., leads the MAAC in scoring (17.5), is second in field-goal percentage (55.5), and 10th in rebounding (6.1). She is a seven-time MAAC Rookie of the Week and two-time Player of the Week. She is the reigning USBWA Tamika Catching national Freshman of the Week after becoming the first Fairfield rookie to score 30 wins in a game in a win at Niagara on Jan. 4.
“It's so surreal,” Andersen said. “We've been working so hard since the summer and to show it now on the court is a huge step.
“The fact that we've been putting in the work to reach our own expectations, I think that's put us right where we want to be. I don't what expectations other people have for us, but personally I have so much hope and faith in our team that I think we can do about anything.”
In the win over Iona, Brown got into foul trouble and Andersen got off to a slow start. But as it's been most of the season, the Stags had someone come in to pick up the slack. This time it was Nicoletti-Leite, a one-time McDonald's high school All-American who struggled with knee injuries in her four years at Florida State before moving on to Fairfield.
She came off the bench and in 28 minutes recorded her third career double-double with 18 points on 6-for-6 shooting (4for-4 from 3-point land) and a career-high 10 assists to only one turnover while adding and three steals.