Rider University women’s basketball who were 2-8 coming in hosted 7-3 Fairfield yesterday playing great basketball so far this season. Rider knew it would be a tough task against them so they needed a perfect game plan to win this matchup. Fairfield is a dangerous team in their conference right now with a deep roster and playing at a high level that has confidence. The biggest key for Rider was stopping Fairfield’s top players in this game. This was a type of game that could have gone either way in my opinion.
. Both teams struggled on offense starting slow in the first quarter and couldn’t find anything at the basket. But midway through things started to pick up as they were able to find better looks against each defense. Fairfield took off after that which made Rider’s defense in trouble and couldn’t really keep up. Fairfield had a 19-11 lead going into the second quarter where it got even worse for Rider. Fairfield was able to get easy baskets at the rim, draw fouls, force turnovers, and take advantage.
Fairfield’s defense was outstanding this whole game which gave them momentum and confidence on offense. They had a 38-21 lead going into halftime as Rider had to make big-time adjustments. In the second half they got outscored 31-16 by Fairfield who continued to extend their lead. Rider had trouble stopping Raiana Brown, Cyanne Coe, Lauren Beach, Megan Anderson, and Emina Selimovic from Fairfield during this matchup. Fairfield ended up getting a 69-37 dominant victory over Rider improving to 8-3 now as a team underneath head coach Carly Thibault.
Leading scorers for Fairfield
