City of Basketball Love

By Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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Sydni Scott’s college career has taken her all over the country, from West Virginia through the South and from Connecticut through the Northeast. 

The one place it hadn’t taken her was back home — until Wednesday night, when Scott and the Fairfield women came down to the Main Line to take on Villanova for the Stags’ season opener.

On her birthday, no less. 

“Back in June, [assistant] coach Blake [Dudonis] told me that he was going to have a game for me at home, and it just so happened to land on my birthday,” she said. “My whole family’s here and I just love being here [...] I’m grateful that they all got to come out tonight.”

Though Scott had a quiet night offensively, she still got to celebrate her homecoming, the Cardinal O’Hara grad and Fairfield senior playing her part in the Stags’ 75-63 win over the Wildcats. 

A 2022 graduate of O’Hara, Scott began her college career at Marshall, spending two years with the Thundering Herd.  As a sophomore, she started 15 games, averaging 8.0 ppg and hitting 34.5% of her 3-pointers for a team that won 26 games and a C-USA title. 

When Marshall coach Kim Caldwell left for Tennessee, Scott hit the transfer portal and ended up at Fairfield, which was coming off a program-best 31-2 season under head coach Carly Thibault-Dudonis. In her first year with the Stags, Scott played in 22 games with one start, averaging 5.3 ppg and hitting 37.6% of her triples on a team that won 28 games and the MAAC championship, earning its third NCAA Tournament trip in four years. 

“I love Fairfield, it’s been a great change for me, because it’s closer to home and the family here is so connected and the community here is so nice,” she said. “Fairfield really helped me be the woman I am today and I’m just thankful for the Fairfield staff and community to be where I am today.”

Scott came off the bench on Wednesday night, getting 17 minutes as a key part of the Stags’ seven-woman rotation. Her shot wasn’t falling, as she went 0-for-4 from deep, but she chipped in some typically tough defense and provided leadership on the court and from the bench.

“We were excited, had this game obviously highlighted on the schedule,” O’Hara coach Chrissie Doogan said. “She’s been dealing with a couple injuries so it was great to see her back on the court and doing things she usually does, mixing things up on defense which she does, and her shot will fall eventually.”

Scott isn’t the only O’Hara Class of ‘22 hoops alum having a quality college career. Her classmate, Maggie Doogan, was the 2024-25 Atlantic 10 Player of the Year and has the attention of WNBA scouts as she embarks on the final year of a standout career at Richmond.

The two of them played each other last year, with Doogan and the Spiders picking up a 62-39 win at Fairfield in November; they’ll have a return date in Virginia in December.

Scott said the two are still regularly in contact, and are looking forward to facing each other on the court one last time. 

“I’m really excited to see her,” Scott said “I’m really close with her, I’ve been growing up with her forever, we played CYO and became teammates in high school, and now we’re rivals again. I love Maggie so much.”

Another familiar face was on the opposing bench from Scott on Wednesday night. Villanova senior Ryanne Allen was a standout at Archbishop Wood when Scott was at O’Hara, the Lions beating the Vikings in the 2022 Catholic League semifinals on their way to the PCL title. Though the two were opponents much of their careers, they were also teammates together for one summer with the Philly Belles. 

“Me and Ryanne are so competitive and I’m glad that we’re still on different teams and we’ve been on different teams forever,” she said. “But we have a band and we’re really close.”

Scott, who’s finishing up her degree in marketing in the spring, said she’s hoping to get a job in analytical marketing upon graduation.

Powering Fairfield’s win over Villanova was a career game from junior Meghan Andersen, who led all scorers with 35 points to set her new mark, bettering a 34-point game a year ago. The 6-1 junior wing/forward, a First Team All-MAAC selection as a sophomore, was 12-of-19 from the floor, 3-of-6 from deep and 8-of-11 from the foul line, adding in seven rebounds and two steals. 

Villanova got its own standout outing from sophomore point guard Jasmine Bascoe, who set her own career mark as she hit 30 points, bettering her old mark by three points. She was at her best in the third quarter, scoring 15 in the frame as the Wildcats overcame a six-point halftime deficit — they trailed the whole first half — to briefly take the lead and send the game into the fourth tied at 51. 

But Bascoe picked up her third foul right at the end of the third quarter, and her fourth on the offensive end to open the final period, sending her to the bench for a critical stretch of the game. 

Fairfield took advantage, stretching its lead back to seven, 58-51 with 6:14 to play. The Stags put the game away at the foul line, going 8-of-8 from the stripe in the final two minutes to seal the deal; they were 21-of-25 from the line for the night.

Villanova shot just 5-of-20 from the 3-point arc and turned it over 16 times, committing 22 team fouls along the way.

“[I’m] disappointed with how we came out and the many lapses we had throughout the contest,” Villanova coach Denise Dillon said. “We just played some really, really bad, undisciplined basketball.”

The Wildcats are back in action on Sunday with a game against VCU in Toronto; it’s a homecoming for Bascoe as well as a somewhat-local game for freshman MD Ntambue, who’s from Montreal.