Jan. 14, 2006
Final Stats
Poughkeepsie, N.Y. -
Four players scoring in double figures was more than enough to keep the Marist women's basketball team undefeated in MAAC play. The Red Foxes (10-4/5-0 MAAC) completed the season sweep of Niagara (2-13/1-5 MAAC) tonight, 70-56 at the McCann Center. MAAC Preseason Player of the Year Fifi Camara (Conakry, Guinea) tallied her second consecutive double-double with 22 points and 12 rebounds to lead her squad to its tenth-straight win.
The game started out close, with Niagara keeping a leash on the Marist offense, taking the score to 8-6, Marist at 16:29 after a Cathy Rutter jumper. The Red Foxes would silence the Purple Eagles with an 11-0 run during the next five minutes. Sarah Wilson stopped the bleeding for Niagaar with a jumper at 11:41, taking the score to 19-8, Marist. The Red Foxes kept the offensive pressure on and took their largest lead of the game at 9:49, up 25-8.
Niagara whittled away at Marist's lead in the latter parts of the first half, thanks to six points by Michelle Manfredi. The Eagles pulled within 10, 22-23 at 2:13, but Sarah Smrdel (Mentor, Ohio) and Julianne Viani (Poughkeepsie, N.Y.) each scored to put Marist up 37-26 at the break.
Niagara scored four straight points to open the second half before Viani nailed a jumper to get Marist back ahead by nine, 39-30 at 18:56. Sarah Wilson, who had 17 points for Niagara, drained a three at 16:24 to bring her team as close as it would ever come, 41-35. That seemed to be a wake-up call for the Red Foxes, who rattled off nine straight points in the next two minutes, including five from redshirt sophomore Meg Dahlman (Spencerport, N.Y.).
Though the Purple Eagles cut the Marist lead to 53-46 at 8:57 with a Jessi Tomasin three, the Red Foxes would quickly get back in stride to seal the win. Marist scored eight straight, followed by an Nikki Flores (Montvale, N.J.) jumper before Niagara outscored Marist's bench 7-0 in the closing minutes.
Camara added two blocks and an assist to her double-double outing of 22 points and 12 rebounds. Dahlman was above her season average with 17 points on 58% shooting to o along with six rebounds, two assists and a block.
The freshman Viani had a solid game with 13 points, four assists and four steals while Flores rounded out the double-digit scorers with 11 points and three boards. Kresge, who leads the nation in assist-turnover ratio, added seven rebounds, six assists and two steals.
Niagara had three players in double figures including Wilson with 17, Mandredi with 11 and Tomasin with 10. Erika Harris was the visitor's leading rebounder with five.
The Foxes outrebounded the Eagles 45-32 and shot 43.3% from the field to their 36%.
Marist will look to remain perfect in conference when it faces Loyola (8-6/3-2 MAAC) at 7:00 p.m. on Monday.
