Meghan Andersen's silence was deafening.
The Fairfield women's basketball team's junior and all-MAAC first-team standout, who scored a school-record 40 points against Marist on Feb. 5, was scoreless after three quarters against Quinnipiac Saturday.
But Andersen came through when it was needed most and Kaety L'Amoreaux strengthened her case for MAAC Player of the Year to finish it off.
Andersen's first basket started a decisive 11-0 run and L'Amoreaux had 30 points as Fairfield moved into a tie for first place in the MAAC with a 75-63 win over Quinnipiac before a crowd of 1,307 at M&T Bank Arena in Hamden.
The two-time reigning MAAC champion Stags (22-4, 16-1 MAAC) avenged a 72-58 loss to the Bobcats (21-5, 16-1) from Jan. 29 and the teams share the conference lead with three games to go in the regular season.
"If you're a player, and I've got a team full of competitors, you look forward to a game like this," Fairfield coach Carly Thibault-DuDonis said on ESPN+ during a postgame interview. "Lammy was obviously the head of the monster today. But we had a team that was so ready to prove the last Quinnipiac game, and credit to them, but we didn't play like us. I thought we played like us today."
Fairfield hosts Saint Peter's Thursday, visits Siena Feb. 21, then wraps up Feb. 28 with a home game versus Sacred Heart.
Quinnipiac is at Sacred Heart Feb. 21 then finishes with home games against Niagara on Feb. 26 and Canisius on Feb. 28.
The teams are assured to be the top two seeds in the MAAC Tournament so they would not meet until the final March 9 in Atlantic City.
"That would be awesome," Thibault-DuDonis said.
Quinnipiac led by as many as seven in the second quarter and Fairfield was up by seven in the third quarter.
A basket by the Bobcats' Anna Foley brought Quinnipiac within 53-52. After the hosts missed on two attempts to take the lead, Andersen drove into the lane, got between two defenders, and scored as she was fouled with 7:24 to go. She missed the free throw but momentum had swung back to the visitors.
L'Amoreaux then scored and Andersen found Lauren Beach for a layup. A 3-pointer by Sydney Scott and two free throws by Andersen with 4:13 to go made it 64-52 and capped the run.
Jackie Grisdale ended Quinnipiac's drought with two free throws but L'Amoreaux answered with a dagger 3 and an Andersen trey with 1:53 remaining iced it.
L'Amoreaux, who was 10-for-17 shooting from the floor and 6-for-6 at the foul line, would add four rebounds and four assists. She played all 40 minutes.
"She was special," Thibault-DuDonis said. "She let the game come to her when it made sense. It's not a surprise to any of us she balled out today."
Beach had 12 points off the bench with her second 5-for-5 performance from the floor against Quinnipiac in 17 days.
Ella O'Donnell had 14 points for the Bobcats, who had a 16-game winning streak snapped. Foley had 11.
This article originally published at Fairfield women's basketball tops Quinnipiac to earn share of MAAC lead.