FAIRFIELD, CT — The Iona University women's basketball team fell to two-time defending MAAC Champions Fairfield, 82-46 on Saturday afternoon at Mahoney Arena.
 
Junior Zoey Ward led the Gaels with a game-high 19 points and eight rebounds. Sophomore Adrianna Gonzalez recorded eight points and a career-high eight rebounds in her first career start. Junior Mya Zaccagnini led Iona with three assists.

THE RUNDOWN

Both sides traded baskets through the first three minutes of action with the home team holding a slight 6-5 edge. Gonzalez opened Iona's scoring with a triple followed by a running layup from Zaccagnini. From there the high-powered Stags offense used a 17-5 closing run to take a 23-10 first quarter lead.
 
The Gaels punched back to start the second quarter with a 5-0 run paced by a layup from Ward and an old fashioned three-point play by Barnwell. Fairfield dictated the pace after that with a 17-9 closing final eight minutes to take a 16-point halftime lead.
 
The Stags continued to hold serve in the second half with a 42-22 margin in the final two quarters to take the lone meeting between the two sides for the regular season and the fifth straight win in the annual series.

IONA PERFORMERS

• Ward registered 19 points on eight made field goals to pair with eight rebounds. It was her third straight game in double figures and the 20^th time in 25 games on the year.
• Gonzalez recorded eight points and a new career-high eight rebounds to go with a team-high two steals.
• Graduate student Naomi Barnwell finished with seven points, four rebounds and two assists.
• Zaccagnini recorded a team-high three assists.

THE OPPONENT

• Fairfield was paced by three scorers in double figures led by a team-high 16 points from Cyanne Coe who also registered a team-high four rebounds.
• Kaety L'Amoreaux posted 15 points, seven assists and three steals.
• Meghan Andersen registered 14 points, two rebounds and two assists.

TEAM STATS

• Fairfield shot 49.8% as a team while Iona was 40.8% from the field on Saturday.
• The Stags connected on 10 three-pointers at 29.4% rate and Iona was held to a season-low two three-pointers at 14.3% clip.
• Iona won the rebounding battle, 34-28 over Fairfield.
• Fairfield forced Iona to commit a season-high 23 turnovers leading to 22 points. Iona forced seven turnovers for the Stags only leading to two points.

UP NEXT

The Gaels return to the Hynes Athletic Center to welcome the MAAC's Western New York contingent into town. First up is a meeting against Canisius on Thursday, February 12 for a 6 p.m. contest.