The Fairfield University women's basketball team completed a three-game home stand on Sunday with a 72-58 win over Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) foe Canisius College at Alumni Hall.  With the win the Stags move to 16-6 on the year and 6-5 in league play, while the Griffs fall to 10-12 overall and 5-6 in league play.

The victory at Alumni Hall is the 200^th Fairfield win at the on-campus facility in the program's history.

The Stags free throw shooting and rebounding was the story of the game.  Leading by seven points, 54-47, Sabra Wrice went to the line with 3:07 left and knocked down a pair of free throws.  She would connect on 10-10 in the final 3:07 of the game, and the team would hit 15-16 in that stretch to hold off the charging Griffs. 

Fairfield also won the battle of the boards in the contest, with a 47-24 advantage for the game.  On the offensive glass the margin was larger, 22-3, and led to a 20-4 advantage for Fairfield in second chance points.  Fairfield forced 19 Griff turnovers in the game, while committing 11 of its own.

Tara Flaherty had her first career double-double for the Stags, finishing with a career-high 14 points and 11 rebounds.  She was 5-6 from the field, including a 5-5 shooting effort in the first half.  Wrice finished with a game-high 24 points, which included a perfect 12-12 at the stripe.  Wrice added five assists and five rebounds, with no turnovers, in 36 minutes of action.  Lauren Groom tallied a season-high 15 points, with 6-9 from the floor and two three-pointers.

Canisius was led by the 15-point efforts of Amanda Cavo, who was 4-5 from behind the arc, and Brittane Russell, who led the team with four assists.  Laura Beutow had 12 points and a team-high six rebounds.

The Griffs led early, 2-0, 80 seconds into the game, and were ahead 12-11 with 11:36 left in the contest.  Wrice made a basket with 11:17 to play to put the Stags ahead, and jumpstarted a 20-4 run, which expanded the lead to 15-points, 31-16, with 1:54 remaining in the half.  The Griffs scored five straight points after that, until Shireyll Moore scored 44 seconds left in the half, to take a 33-21 lead into the intermission.

Fairfield opened the second half with a 7-0 spurt to take the largest lead of the game, 40-23, 16:47 left in the game. 

Fairfield returns to action on Friday, Feb. 8 when it travels to New Rochelle, N.Y. to take on Iona College.  Game time is set for 5 p.m.