POUGHKEEPSIE, New York – The Marist women's basketball team got its first victory of the season 85-74 on Tuesday night at McCann Arena. With the win, the Red Foxes improve to 1-1 overall on the season while Holy Cross also moves to 1-1.

SUMMARY

The Red Foxes started off slowly and had some turnovers, falling behind 7-0. They got some momentum when Lovisa Henningsdottir sunk a triple, followed by red-shirt freshman Molly Smith's first career three. Smith led the team with five points in the first quarter, but the Red Foxes trailed 17-16 after a buzzer beating shot from the Crusaders.

Marist picked up some momentum in the middle of the second quarter. Sophomore Rebekah Hand and freshman Allie Best each swished threes, with Best's giving the Red Foxes the lead. Allie Clement had a steal and a layup on a fast break to stretch the lead to 39-30. The Red Foxes put up 23 points in the second quarter.

The third quarter started off with threes from Clement and Best. Best would sink another triple later in the quarter, giving her six points in the quarter. Marist led 59-52 at the end.

The Red Foxes put up 24 points in the 4^th quarter to secure the victory. Henningsdottir had five points, while freshman Gabi Redden scored her first career point on a free throw with 14 seconds left.

KEY STATS

• Sophomore Rebekah Hand led the Red Foxes with 19 points while shooting 6-for-11 and 3-6 from behind the arc.
• Rebekah Hand and junior Lovisa Henningsdottir tied for the team lead with eight rebounds.
• Freshman Allie Best took six out of her seven shots from three, sinking four of them.
• The Red Foxes shot 13-for-29 (44.8%) from behind the arc.

GAME NOTES

• Smith swished her first career three and scored her first eight career points.
• Redden swished a free throw for her first career point in the fourth quarter.
• The Red Foxes picked up their first ever win against Holy Cross after the series started 7-0 in the Crusaders favor.
• Marist had five players score in double figures (Hand, 19; Best, 14; Clement, 14; Maura Fitzpatrick, 13; and Henningsdottir, 10).

 
QUOTE
"A tremendous win for our team tonight. Coming in knowing that Alana wasn't going to play, and Hannah wasn't going to play, it put us a little short-handed at guard, but we got great contributions from our bench. Molly Smith was outstanding in the first half, Lovisa had some big threes, Rebekah was Rebekah, and Maura had a very nice game. We shot the three ball well and made the big baskets. I can't say enough about the game that Allie Best had today in her first start, outstanding." - Head coach Brian Giorgis.

UP NEXT
The Red Foxes are back in action on Sunday as they ship up to Boston to play Northeastern. Tip is set for 2 p.m.