Jan. 2, 2005

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Poughkeepsie, NY - The Marist women's basketball team took a 56-47 win over a gritty Cornell team at the McCann Center this afternoon. Marist junior Fifi Camara (Conakry, Guinea) led all scorers with 16 points while Alisa Kresge (Holmdel, NJ) picked up eight rebounds including five offensive and dished a career high eight assists. With the win, the Red Foxes improve to 5-5 on the season while the Big Red falls to 1-8.

Kristin Keller (Poughkeepsie, NY) put the Red Foxes on the board first with a putback after an offensive board and Cornell's Lindsay Krasna answered with a quick three. A Camara three point play along with a Kresge trey to put Marist up for good. Camara visited the free throw line two more times and was a perfect 5-5 before getting into foul trouble herself. The Red Foxes opened up their lead to 16-9 after a pair of Keller free throws before Katherine Stritzl put Cornell within five. Kristen Vilardi (Fishkill, NY) drained a three to give Marist its biggest lead of the half, up 19-11 with 9:47 remaining and neither team would score again for two minutes.

Claire Perry drained a three to bring the Big Red back into it, but Marist continued to stay one step ahead of Cornell. Five straight points by freshman Stephanie Youdath (Mentor, OH) put Marist up 28-20 but Krasna drained a last-second three for the Big Red. The Red Foxes took a 29-23 lead into the locker room, having shot a solid 84.6% from the free-throw line.

Marist opened the second half on a 13-4 run spurred by two Keller jumpers and capped off by a Courtney Kolesar (Painesville, OH) trey, her first collegiate points. Kolesar struck again from three-point land just minutes later to give the Red Foxes a 45-29 lead, their largest of the day. Neither team scored for the next four minutes until Perry hit a jumper and a pair of free throws to pull Cornell within 12 at 45-33. Morgan Dickens answered with two long-balls of her own to cut the Marist lead to just six points with 5:07 remaining.

Marist struggled offensively and was without a field goal for three minutes, opening the door for Cornell to pull within three off a Krasna jumper, 48-45 with 3:11 left. Senior Megan Vetter (Havertown, PA) hit her only three of the night at a critical moment with 1:28 left to give Marist a 51-45 lead and the ultimate victory. The Big Red was forced to foul and 5-6 free throw shooting from the Foxes, including a pair from Vetter, allowed Marist to pull away for the final score of 56-47.

Camara finished the day with five boards and three steals to go along with her 16 points, including 10-11 shooting from the charity stripe. Keller tallied 10 points and five boards, along with two assists and two steals. Kresge snagged four steals of her own to go along with her season-high eight boards and assists and three points. Youdath picked up seven points and a career-high two blocks on the day.

Lindsay Crasna paced the Big Red with 13 points and four assists and Amy Lyon picked up eight boards and a game-high five steals.

The Red Foxes travel to Bethlehem, PA to take on Patriot League foe Lehigh at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday.