The Fairfield University women's basketball team earned a 57-51 win over IPFW on Wednesday afternoon in at the Hillard Gates Sports Center in Fort Wayne, Ind.  The Stags improve to 3-2 on the year, while the Mastadons fall to 0-4 on the year.

Fairfield trailed 25-22 at the intermission, but out scored IPFW 35-26 in the second half to earn the victory.  Baendu Lowenthal scored 15 of her game-high 19 points in that second half, and finished with a double-double, also pulling down 13 rebounds.

"The first half I thought they took the play away from us and we did not do a good job taking care of the ball," said Fairfield head coach Joe Frager.  "We made it a point of emphasis to come out on the second half and take care of the ball and work harder on the offensive glass."

The Stags finished the game with a 43-33 advantage on the boards, and a 17-12 edge on the offensive glass.  The second half saw the Stags with a 12-3 edge on the offensive boards and a 13-0 second chance point advantage.  Fairfield also committed just three of its 14 turnovers in the second half of play, allowing no points off of turnovers in the period, after IPFW scored 14 first-half points off of Stags miscues in the opening Stanza.

Desiree Pina, who scored 11 in the game, had the first of her seven second-half points on the team's first possession of the second half, opening a 10-2 run to give the team a 32-27 lead with 16:00 to play.  IPFW came back with a 5-0 run of its own, tying the score, 32-32, 1:13 later, before Shireyll Moore laid the ball home for a 34-32 lead that the Stags would not relinquish.  The Stags pushed the edge to seven points, 41-34, with 11:20 left, before a 6-0 Mastadon run cut it to 41-40 with 10:01 left.  Taryn Johnson laid a ball home with 8:12 to play, which was followed by a Megan Caskin three-pointer with 6:40 to play, to push the advantage back to six points, 46-40.  Lowenthal put home the Stags last field goal, at the 5:25 mark, making it 48-42 putting the outcome at the line.

Fairfield went 9-11 from the free throw line in the final 4:47 of the game to seal the victory.  Fairfield knocked down its first 16 free throws, not missing until the final 28 seconds of the game, and finished 17-19, 89.5 percent, from the stripe for the game.

Moore finished 3-5 from the field and 2-3 at the stripe for eight points.  Caskin had the three points, three assists, five boards and two steals.  Stephanie Geehan added six points, eight boards and two blocked shots, while Johnson and Tara Flaherty each had four points.

Fairfield opened the game hitting 4-8 from the floor over the first 5:42, using that to jump out to a 16-9 advantage, but went cold for the remainder of the first half.  Fairfield went 5-15 the remainder of the half, finishing hitting 39.1 percent from the field in the opening period.

The Stags led 18-17 on a Geehan basket with 6:42 to play, but they did not score again for nearly five minutes, and IPFW took advantage, retaking the lead and opening a 23-18 and 25-20 advantage, before Moore's basket with 54 seconds left in the half.

The Stags return to action on Monday, Dec. 1, traveling to Ithaca, N.Y. for a 6 p.m. meeting with Cornell, a 2008 NCAA Tournament participant.