The Fairfield University women's basketball team rallied from an eight-point second-half deficit to earn a 64-56 win at the University of Maine on Sunday.  The victory brings the Stags back to even on the year, at 5-5, while the Black Bears fall to 2-8.

"I am very, very pleased with the second-half effort," said head coach Joe Frager, "I thought we executed really well in the final 10-12 minutes."

Maine took its largest lead of the game, 36-28 with a lay-up from Tanna Ross with 17:09 to play in the game.  The Stags began the comeback with a 7-2 run, with field goals from Lauren Groom, Taryn Johnson and Baendu Lowenthal, to get with in 38-35 with 13:38 to play.  Fairfield continued its run, taking its first lead of the half with 9:41 to play, 43-42, with a pair of Shireyll Moore free throws.

Just over a minute later (8:32) Maine would tie the score, but Desiree Pina would drain a three-pointer 22 seconds later, to put the Stags up 46-43, a lead they would not relinquish.  The lead would never dip below two points the rest of the way and would expand to as many as 12 points, when Lauren Groom drained her second three-pointer in under a minute with 1:31 to play, putting the Stags up 64-52.

Stephanie Geehan led the Stags with her second double-double in three games, putting up 12 points and 11 rebounds.  She shot 6-9 from the field and had three steals in 27 minutes of action.  Pina and Groom also reached double figures for the Stags, scoring 11 and 10 respectively, with 19 of those points coming in the second half.

Lowenthal finished with eight points, nine rebounds and five assists, in just 19 minutes of action due to foul trouble.  Megan Caskin led the Stags with six assists, as well as adding four rebounds and four points.  Lauren Tucker drained a pair of first-half three pointers for six points, while Johnson scored four points, after arriving at the game at halftime.  Moore went 5-5 at the stripe on her way to nine points in the game. 

The Stags shot 53.8 percent from the field in the second half, 14-26, after hitting 10-33 in the first-half, and ended shooting 40.7 percent for the game.  The Stags went 3-5 from behind the arc during the second-half, hitting six for the game.  Fairfield was 10-15 at he stripe overall.

Fairfield out rebounded Maine 37-35 for the game, with a 12-10 advantage on the offensive glass.  The Stags had a 20-13 rebounded edge in the second half.  Fairfield committed 15 turnovers, to go along with 16 assists.  Maine turned the ball over 17 times, with 12 assists.

Fairfield took a 24-19 advantage on a conventional three-point play from Moore with 3:48 to play in the first-half, but the Black Bears answered.  Maine finished the half with a 13-2 run, the Stags only basket coming with 2:30 to play from Desiree Pina, to take a 32-26 lead into the intermission.

The Stags are off until after Christmas when they travel to Hanover, N.H. to play in the Blue Sky Classic, Dec. 29-30 at Dartmouth College.  Fairfield will take on Wagner College at 5 p.m. on Monday while Boston College and Dartmouth meet in the other game.