Dec. 31, 2005

Final Stats

Philadelphia, Pa. - Former Our Lady of Lourdes teammates Julianne Viani (Poughkeepsie, N.Y.) and Kristen Vilardi (Fishkill, N.Y.) combined for 31 points to lead Marist to its sixth consecutive win, 70-65 over Penn today. Viani, a freshman, scored a career-high 18 points on 4-9 shooting from behind the arc and tallied five assists. Meg Dahlman (Spencerport, N.Y.) joined Viani and Vilardi in double figures, contributing 11 points and six rebounds in 22 minutes of work. The Red Foxes improved to 6-4 (2-0 MAAC) while the struggling Quakers dropped to 1-9 on the season.

The game was back and forth early, with Marist's Fifi Camara (Conakry, Guinea) leading her team to a 6-3 lead at 17:18. Later, Penn grabbed the 9-8 lead after a jumper by Ashley Gray but Nikki Flores (Montvale, N.J.) came in off the bench and drained a big three to get the advantage back for the Foxes. That was the first of five consecutive possessions with a trey for Marist. Viani went on a 9-0 run on her own to give Marist a 23-16 lead at 10:12. Camara would soon come out of the game due to fouls, but Head Coach Brian Giorgis utilized his hot-shooting guards and Marist did not miss a beat.

Once the Foxes gained that lead, they held on to a comfortable margin for the rest of the half. Junior point guard Danielle McCray (Lyons, N.Y.) gave the Foxes their largest lead, 36-24, before Rachel Wilson cut the lead to 10 with a jumper, 36-26 at the half.

Both teams started off slow in the second half, with Marist holding a 38-29 lead five minutes into the period. Dahlman entered the game at the media time out and gave Marist a huge boost, scoring all eight of her team's points during a six-minute span. She capped her eight point, three rebound spurt with a big three at 10:35 to give Marist a 46-35 lead.

Marist's defense forced the Quakers to play late into their shot clock, but they managed to nail big shots late in the count to keep in the game. A triple from Kelly Scott pulled Penn closer, 48-42 at 7:38, but Viani made two free-throws to keep Marist at arms length. Monica Naltner was big down the stretch for the Quakers, but each time her team pulled within four, Marist answered with made free-throws or a big bucket.

Penn's Joey Rhoads, who had 10 of her 12 points in the second half, hit two free throws at 3:58 to bring it to 55-51, Marist. Dahlman came up big again, completing a three-point play to extend Marist's lead to 58-51.

The two teams traded free-throws late in the contest and Marist was 7-8 from the line in the last minute of play. Vilardi went 4-4 in the last minute and was 7-8 for the game from the charity stripe.

Vilardi's 13 points were a season-high, as were Viani's 18. Camara finished with nine points and four rebounds in 23 minutes played while Kresge was solid, posting seven assists, no turnovers, five rebounds and two steals.

Marist is back in action this weekend when it returns to MAAC play with a trip to Niagara (1-10/0-2 MAAC) on Thursday Jan. 5 for a 7:00 p.m. tipoff