FAIRFIELD, Conn. — The dream season continues for the 31-1 Fairfield Women’s Basketball team on Saturday, as it is set to battle the Indiana Hoosiers at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall in Bloomington, Ind. at 1:30 p.m. on ESPN2.
Winners of 29 consecutive games, the No. 13 seed Stags have every reason to believe they can pull off a road upset over the No. 4 seed Hoosiers on Saturday. Fairfield has the second-most wins in the country and hasn’t lost since Nov. 12, 2023. Ranked 25th in the AP poll, Fairfield may have deserved a higher seed but will let its play do the talking on the court.
How Fairfield got here
While Fairfield head coach Carly Thibault-DuDonis was not a Naismith Women’s College Coach of the Year finalist, she could have been. She did win the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Coach of the Year, at least.
Led by Thibault-DuDonis, the Stags have been nearly perfect in 2023-2024 and won both the MAAC regular season and tournament crowns.
Fairfield is making its sixth appearance in March Madness and its second in the past three years. The Stags have the nation’s second highest winning percentage, behind only No. 1 overall seed South Carolina, and became only the second MAAC team to go undefeated in league play.
Fairfield features a balanced attack, led by forward Meghan Andersen, who averaged 15.2 points and 1.4 blocks per game. Guard Emina Selimovic led the team in rebounds with 5.4 per contest, while guard Izabela Nicoletti Leite led the team in assists, averaging 3.8 per game. Guard Janelle Brown, the conference’s Player of the Year and MAAC Tournament MVP, enters the tournament as Fairfield’s second-leading scorer, averaging 13.6 points per game. Freshman forward Meghan Anderson won MAAC Rookie of the Year and was one of 40 players to appear on the National Player of the Year Watch List.
Previewing Indiana
Indiana will have homecourt advantage on Saturday when it hosts the Stags in one of college basketball’s most storied gymnasiums. Ranked 14th in the AP poll, Indiana carries a record of 24-5 into NCAA Tournament play after falling to Michigan in the Big Ten Tournament.
Indiana is competing in its fifth consecutive NCAA Tournament and the 10th overall in program history. Head coach Teri Moren has led the Hoosiers to an 8-5 NCAA Tournament record and is making her sixth appearance in the Big Dance.
The Hoosiers are led by Third-Team AP All-American Mackenzie Holmes, who was a First-Team All-American last season. Holmes averaged 20 points and 6.9 rebounds per game, leading the team in both categories. She also averaged 1.4 blocks per game but will be playing through a left knee injury on Saturday.
Indiana also features guard Chloe Moore-McNeil, who averaged 4.9 assists and 1.4 steals per game this season. Guard Sara Scalia is another scoring option, having averaged 16.2 points per game.
Last season, Indiana was a No. 1 seed but lost in the Round of 32. This year’s team will look to avoid another early exit and defeat the red-hot Fairfield Stags.
Dalton Zbierski is a digital content producer at FOX61 News. He can be reached at dzbierski@FOX61.com.
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