Fairfield has Best Defensive Game

The Fairfield University women's basketball team entered Wednesday's contest against the Albany Great Danes as the eighth best defensive team in the entire nation. The squad only had surrendered 50.2 points per game and had limited their foes to shoot only 35 percent. They would 'protect' those rankings as the miniscule numbers would decrease even smaller as they held the America East team to a program record 26 points while shooting a minute 16 percent from the floor. Statistically it was the best defensive effort in the 30 year history of Fairfield women's basketball. "I'm ecstatic with this win," head coach Joe Frager said, "I thought our kids did a fantastic job defensively. They paid really close attention to the scouts and really executed it to a tee."

 

Albany already became the seventh opponent that the Stags had held to under 50 points in the first 10 games of the season. Since Frager became the head of the coaching circle, the Stags have held 26 opponents to under 50 points and are 25-1 in those games. They have also confined 14 teams to under 45 points and lastly restricted 6 to below 40 tallies. It is safe to say that defense is something that the coach emphasizes in practice, "We really focused on our defense that is what we keyed in on before going into the game, we just wanted to take away their plans and make it as hard as possible for them," Joelle Nawrocki said.

 

Excluding the Hofstra game where they gave up 89 points, the team has allowed only 38 points per game! The big reason why they were able to 'secure' their winning streak which now stands at three games and 'guard' their 7-3 record.

 

Fairfield seems to have used these non-conference games as a way to flush out their mistakes and work on their strengths before the ever important MAAC portion of their schedule. "I think we're starting to turn the corner, conference play is always difficult because everyone knows each other so darn well ," Frager said.

 

With only one out-of-conference games remaining, the Stag's defense (which is the best in the MAAC) is coming together at the right time. "I think we can make a good case that this may be our best win of the season," Frager said. The head coach has always prided his team on their defensive systems. With the offense just starting to gleam the defense has always shined. If the team continues their impressive defensive effort, it just might 'secure' a MAAC crown.