HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. - In an exciting game that came down to the wire, the Marist women's basketball team fell just short to a powerful Hofstra team 71-69 Thursday afternoon in the championship game of the New York Life Holiday Invitational, presented by Hofstra.
With 12 seconds remaining and the score tied at 68, Hofstra's Shante Evans, who finished with a game-high 29 points, converted a three-point play to put the Pride ahead. Marist (5-5) brought the ball down the court and Leanne Ockenden (Syracuse, N.Y.) was fouled with four seconds left. After hitting the first free throw, she purposely missed the second. Hofstra (9-2) grabbed the defensive rebound, but was called for travelling, giving the Red Foxes the ball under their own basket with 2.3 seconds on the clock.
Corielle Yarde (Reading, Pa.) received the in-bound pass and took a tough shot over a taller defender. Casey Dulin (Milford, Conn.) grabbed the rebound and hit what appeared to be a game-tying layup at the buzzer that was originally called good on the floor, but after a video review was called off with the ruling that she did not get the shot off in time.
Yarde and Dulin tied for the team lead with 14 points apiece and Yarde led the Red Foxes with seven rebounds and set a career-high with four blocks and the Red Foxes had 10 blocks as a team.. Ockenden set a career-high with 13 points and Brandy Gang (Hartville, Ohio) also had a double-digit performance with 11 points. Kristina Danella (Manalapan, N.J.) chipped in with seven points off the bench. Freshman Natalie Gomez (Andover, Mass) set career-highs with four points, four assists and four steals in 30 minutes.
Things started off well for the Red Foxes as they jumped out to an early 11-4 lead just three and a half minutes into the game. Yarde, Ockenden and Gang all connected on three-pointers and Dulin broke free for a layup.
Hofstra responded however, with a 23-6 run that encompassed a span of over eight minutes and gave the Pride a 10-point lead at 27-17 lead with 8:10 left in the first half.
Marist closed the half on a streak of their own, outscoring Hofstra 15-8 the rest of the period to close within three at 35-32. Emily Stallings (Newburgh, N.Y.) started the run by hitting a jumper before back-to-back three pointers by Gang. After a layup by Gomez, Dulin hit a pair of free throws and Yarde hit another three.
Gang led the team with 11 points at the break, including being a perfect 3-3 from three-point range. Dulin had eight points and Yarde had six with three rebounds.
The second half was full of runs that saw Hofstra open up large leads only to see Marist fight back. With the Red Foxes trailing 37-36 after a Kelsey Beynnon (Burlington, Vt.) layup, the Pride rang off 12 consecutive points to expand their lead to 13 with 15:56 left to play.
Seven points by Danella and a short jumper by Gomez helped pull Marist all the way back to within one at 57-56 with just under nine minutes left.
Marist could not pull even until a Yarde layup tied the score at 64 and another layin by Dulin at 1:55 gave the Red Foxes their first lead since the 13 minute mark of the first half.
After two free throws by Evans tied the score, Ockenden gave Marist the lead again at 68-66 with 1:36 left. Another two points by Evans again knotted things up with 32 seconds left to set up the final drama.
The Red Foxes will break for the holidays before returning to McCann Arena next Thursday, Dec. 29 when they close out their non-conference schedule against Kansas State. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m.
Notes - Yarde was named to the All-Tournament team following the game... Marist was 9-10 from the free-throw line with the only blemish being the intentional miss by Ockenden... The team dished out 20 assists on 26 made field goals... The Red Foxes' bench outscored the Hofstra bench 15-4 led by Danella's seven.
