Dec. 10, 2006
Final Stats
JERSEY CITY, N.J.-The Marist men's basketball team scorched homestanding Saint Peter's with 63.5 percent shooting from the floor en route to a wire-to-wire 89-70 victory Sunday afternoon at the Yanitelli Center. The Red Foxes improved to 8-2 overall and a 2-0 mark in Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference play, while the Peacocks dropped to 3-6 overall and 1-1 in the MAAC.
Senior guard Will Whittington (Kingwood, Tx.) was one of five Marist players in double figures, as he led the Red Foxes with 21 points on 7-10 shooting from the floor and 5-7 shooting from 3-point range. Senior center James Smith (Nyack, N.Y.) made all eight of his 2-point attempts on his way to an 18-point outing. Senior point guard Jared Jordan (Hartford, Conn.) tallied 10 points, 10 assists and five rebounds. Jordan, the national leader in assists this season at 8.5 per contest, led the country in the category last season as well.
Redshirt sophomore Kaylen Gregory (St. Thomas, Virgin Islands) scored a career-high 13 points off the bench, while junior Wilfred Benjamin (St. Francis Village Erin, Trinidad) continued his stellar play with 10 points and five rebounds. Redshirt sophomore Ryan Stilphen (Bay Village, Ohio) tied a career-high with five assists.
Saint Peter's was led by Kevin Spann's 21 points, while Todd Sowell had 16 points and a game-high nine boards. Raul Orta also entered double digits with 10 points. Orta and Spann led the Peacocks with three assists.
The Red Foxes jumped Saint Peter's right from the start, building two 11-point leads in the first half, the last on a 3-pointer by Smith (37-26) with 2:59 left to play in the first stanza.
Marist pulled away in the second half, shooting 66.7 percent from the floor (16-24) to just 35.5 percent (11-31) for Saint Peter's. The Red Foxes took their largest lead (89-67) of the game right before the final horn on a 3-pointer by Gregory with 27 seconds left.
For the game, the Red Foxes torched the nets in Jersey City with a 63.5 percent (33-52) effort from the floor, while the Peacocks hit on 38.1 percent (24-63). Marist shot 45.8 percent from 3-point range (11-24), while Saint Peter's made seven of 22 shots (31.8 percent). The Red Foxes went 12-for-17 from the free throw lines for 70.6 percent, while the Peacocks made 15 of 19 shots (78.9 percent) from the charity stripe.
Jordan (1,174) and Whittington (1,170) now stand 13th and 14th on the school's all-time scoring list behind Bobby Joe Hatton (1995-99, 1,190) who is 12th.
Marist has still yet to play a game decided by fewer than seven points this season.
The 2-0 MAAC start is the first for Marist since the 2001-02 season. Marist has also scored at least 80 points in five consecutive games, the first time the program has had a streak that long. The Red Foxes are 8-0 this season when they register more assists and 5-0 when they claim more steals.
Marist will now enjoy a break in the schedule, as it is off until Tuesday, Dec. 19 when it travels to Wright State for a 7 p.m. contest.
