EMMITSBURG, Md. (February 17, 2024) – Looking to put a wrench into their opponent's impressive season, Mount St. Mary's women's basketball battled all the way to the final buzzer in an upset bid of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) leader. Fairfield was able to escape Emmitsburg with a 61-59 win on a layup by Emina Selimovic with 0.6 seconds remaining.
Led by
Jessica Tomasetti and
Jo Raflo with 14 points each, four Mountaineers ended in double figures.
Jada Lee finished with 13, and
Isabella Hunt with 10.
Jaedyn Jamison matched Hunt for a team-high six rebounds.
The Mountaineers battled throughout and put themselves in prime position to snap the Stags' 19-game winning streak. They held five point leads off jumpers by Hunt and Tomasetti in the fourth quarter, the latter coming with 2:15 on the clock. Fairfield pieced together a 5-0 run to deadlock proceedings. Inside of 30 seconds, Raflo was fouled driving to the hoop and sank one free throw for a 57-56 edge. Kaety L'Amoreux – who finished with a game-high 20 – retorted with a three-point shot with 14 seconds to put the Stags up, but Tomasetti responded with a jumper to knot the game at 59. Calling a timeout with 2.7 seconds to go, the Stags advanced the ball in front of their bench. Izabela Nicoletti-Leite found Selimovic under the basket for the winner.
Mount St. Mary's had the lead for 38 minutes and 29 seconds, with Fairfield leading at the very beginning and at three times in the fourth quarter. After the Stags went up 2-0, the Mount electrified the home crowd with a 16-0 run. They used the 14 point lead to withstand an early challenge by Fairfield, who managed to cut it back down to 19-18 early in the second period. Fighting back the Mount scored 13 of the next 19 points to lead 32-24 at the break.
Harsh language towards the officials by Fairfield heading for the locker room allowed the Mountaineers to extend the lead to double digits on the technical. They parlayed that into a 42-30 lead with a Raflo trey at the 4:09 mark of the third. The Stags whittled the game to four points entering the fourth, punctuated by a L'Amoreaux triple. Fairfield took their first lead since the opening minute at 49-48, answered in kind by a Lee layup which set up the photo finish.
In addition to L'Amoreaux's 20, Janelle Brown went 8-for-11 from the floor on the way to an 18-point effort. Fairfield wins its 20
th consecutive game and improves to 22-1 (14-0 MAAC) this season.
With the defeat the Mountaineers see a three-game winning streak come to an end as they fall to 10-14 (7-8 MAAC).
On Thursday (Feb. 22), the Mount begins the first leg of a New York trip with a game against Marist. The team travels on to Iona Saturday (Feb. 24).
