POUGHKEEPSIE, New York – The Marist women's basketball team suffered a tough 77-70 loss to the United States Naval Academy Midshipmen in its season opener on Friday night at McCann Arena.

SUMMARY

The Red Foxes started off slowly, falling behind 9-2 and 13-7 early in the first quarter before going on a 12-5 run in the second half of the first quarter to take their first lead at 19-18 with 1:46 left.

Marist continued its hot play into the second quarter and opened up an eight point lead at 26-18 with 7:19 left in the first half. The Midshipmen answered with a 13-5 run to close out and send the game into the half tied at 31-31.

The third quarter was all Red Foxes as they scored the first nine points of the second half, rode a 13-2 run to their largest lead of the game with 4:51 left, and finished out the quarter with the 56-46 advantage.

Navy answered with a 19-9 run to start the fourth quarter to even the score at 65-65 with 4:42 left in the game. Marist answered with a free throw to take the one point lead but the Midshipmen answered right back and didn't look back, ending the game on 12-4 run to pick up the 77-70 victory.

KEY STATS

• Sophomore Rebekah Hand led the Red Foxes with 16 points on 6-for-12 shooting.
• Junior Maura Fitzpatrick grabbed a team high 10 rebounds.
• Freshman Willow Duffell finished with 13 points and 8 rebounds in her first career game.
• Marist shot 26-for-62 from the field (41.9%) while Navy shot 30-for-65 (36.2%).
• The Red Foxes shot 11-for-24 (45.8%) from the free throw line while the Midshipmen shot 7-for-10 (70%) from the charity stripe.
• Navy made 10 three pointers to the Red Foxes seven.

GAME NOTES

• Duffell joined elite company with her 13 points, becoming just the fourth freshman to score 10+ points in her first career game under head coach Brian Giorgis (Rachelle Fitz, Erica Allenspach & Kat Fogarty).
• Alana Gilmer finished second on the team with 14 points and tied for second with eight rebounds in her first career game as a Red Fox.
• Marist had three players score in double digits, two of which were playing their first career game at Marist (Duffell & Gilmer).

QUOTE
"It was as disappointing of a loss as we've had in awhile. That was a game that we could've and should've won but if you don't stop anyone in the fourth quarter and they just score at will, you're going to lose games." - Head coach Brian Giorgis.

UP NEXT
The Red Foxes are back in action on Tuesday as they host the Holy Cross Crusaders at McCann Arena (7 PM).