Dec. 22, 2001

Final Stats

POUGHKEEPSIE, NY - Senior Rick Smith (Bladensburg, MD) poured in a career-high tying 22 points and grabbed a team leading nine rebounds to lead the Marist Red Foxes to a 78-63 victory over Central Florida this evening in the James J. McCann Recreation Center. The victory improves Marist's record to 7-2 on the year while Central Florida falls of 5-5 overall.

The Red Foxes extended a nine-point (41-32) halftime lead to as much as 17 points (53-36) in the second half, sparked by a 15-point second half effort by Smith. Senior Matt Tullis (Orem, UT) who also finished the game with a career-high tying 18-point effort dumped in 12 points in the second half to round out the Red Foxes scoring in double figures.

Marist jumped out to an early nine-point (13-4) lead with 15:21 to play in the first half before the Golden Knights closed the gap and took their third as final lead of the game (29-32) with 4:13 to play in the first stanza. Marist closed out the first half of play on a 16-2 run over the final 5:12 and never trailed again.

The Golden Knights were led by Paul Reed who finished the night with 17 points and a game-high 20 rebounds.

The Red Foxes will return to action on Friday, December 28th as they host Atlantic 10 Conference foe LaSalle in the McCann Center. Game time is set for 7:30 p.m.

--RED FOXES--