POUGHKEEPSIE, New York - Women's basketball (19-8, 11-4 MAAC) set the tone early against Fairfield (8-18, 5-10 MAAC) to jump out to an immediate advantage and run away with a huge victory on Tuesday night. The Red Foxes did not allow a field goal for the entire first quarter, and forced 16 straight misses before a Stag scored a jumpshot.
 

SUMMARY

•  Marist's game against Fairifeld started with a lockdown defense, much like with Canisius. The Red Foxes did not allow the Stags to score a field goal in the first quarter.
• Marist led 17-2 at the end of the first, only allowing Fairfield to make a pair of free throws.
• The Red Foxes forced 16 misses before the Stags' Sam Kramer finally scored from the field.
• Willow Duffell dished out a career-high four assists before the midway point of the second quarter.
• The Red Foxes scored 31 points in the second quarter, their second highest of the season after 32 at Niagara.
• In the first half, Marist shot 63% from the field and 46% from three while holding Fairfield to 14% from the field and 23% from three.
• Three Red Foxes (Duffell, Rebekah Hand, Grace Vander Weide) entered double-digit scoring midway through the third quarter as Marist led 56-28.
• Marist continued pushing through the end of the third quarter and led 63-32 at the final break.
• Vander Weide reached a career-high 18 points in the first minutes of the fourth.
• Lovisa Henningsdottir hit two-of-two threes to stretch Marist's lead to 77-38 with four minutes to go, matching her season-high of four three-pointers.
• The Red Foxes' momentum held up through the end of the game to come away with a 41-point victory.

KEY STATS

• Grace Vander Weide scored a career-high 18 points with six rebounds and five assists.
• Willow Duffell recorded a career-high four assists with 13 points and five rebounds.
• No Stags scored in double-digits.

NOTES

• Marist is now 36-14 with Fairfield all-time, having won the past four contests.
• The Red Foxes' field-goal percentage of 56.4 and three-point percentage of 50.0 was the highest of the year. 
• Every Marist player scored for the fifth time this season.

QUOTE

"It was the best game of the year on both ends of the floor. It started out somewhat similar to the Canisius game, where we jumped out to an 11 or 13-nothing lead" reflected Coach Brian Giorgis. "We had good stops on the defensive end, which got us into our offense. Fairfield had a really tough game against Quinnipiac, but our kids just came out really strong today. We got contributions from everybody. Grace [Vander Weide] and Willow [Duffell] had two of their best games, and it was just a great team effort. 
 

UP NEXT

Women's basketball heads to Hamden, Connecticut for a rematch with MAAC-leader Quinnipiac (19-6, 14-0 MAAC) on Saturday, Feb. 23. The game will be streamed on ESPN+ and broadcast via Marist Radio, and begins at 2 p.m.