WEST POINT, New York – In its first action since the COVID-19 pandemic canceled the 2020 MAAC Basketball Championships before the semifinals, the Marist women's basketball program defeated Army West Point 83-55 in the Red Foxes' 2020-21 season opener at Christl Arena on Saturday afternoon.
Marist goes to 1-0, and has won three consecutive season openers for the first time in program history. Army, who previously defeated MAAC foes Iona and Rider, falls to 2-2.
Junior guard
Sarah Barcello led four Red Foxes in double figures with 15 points off a trio of three-pointers. Sophomore guard
Trinasia Kennedy posted a career-high 14 points along with three assists and three rebounds. Senior forward
Willow Duffell and freshman forward
Caitlin Weimar, the latter of whom got the start in her first-career game, chipped in 12 points in the frontcourt.
The Black Knights' Alisa Fallon led the team with 10 points, almost nine points below her season average. Liz Layne added nine points.
- Marist opened the game on an 11-0 run through the first five minutes, as Duffell and Weimar sank a pair of shots, and Barcello launched a three.
- After calling a timeout, Army ended the quarter on a 14-2 stretch with the help of four three-pointers.
- With the score 17-16 Marist and two and a half minutes gone by in the second quarter, the Red Foxes were able to corral two offensive rebounds that turned into an Allie Best three-pointer.
- Best connected with Duffell on back-to-back possessions, with the latter converting underneath twice to push the edge to 26-19 at the 4:21 mark.
- Junior guard Kendall Krick lofted a pass to the low post for Weimar to make a right-handed layup to out the Red Foxes up 31-22 at the half.
- Marist boosted its lead to 36-24, the largest of the day at the time, when Barcello drilled a step-back three from the left wing with 7:47 remaining in the third quarter.
- The advantage ballooned to 16 points, 47-31, when freshman guard Emma Wax (nine points, two steals) buried her first-career bucket from beyond the arc.
- As the Red and White broke through a press defense, Kennedy raced from the timeline and down the left lane to hit a contested layup to make it 61-41 just 1:22 into the fourth quarter.
- Freshman guard Anabel Ellison score her first triple as a Red Fox with 5:46 to play, extending the edge to 69-43.
- The sophomore class scored the final six points of the ballgame, including Samantha Bailey's first-career three-pointer.
- Marist shot over 72 percent in the second half, going 21-of-29 from the field and 7-of-10 from downtown.
- After averaging a near-MAAC record 20.03 assists a season ago, the Red Foxes dished out 20 assists on 34 field goals. Best had a team-best four assists.
- Weimar paced the squad with seven boards and three blocks, as Marist outrebounded Army 34-31.
- The starting lineup accounted for 26 of the 34 field goals in the ballgame, and registered 1.38 points per possession.
- The Red Foxes outpaced the Black Knights in points off turnovers (23-8) and points in the paint (36-12).
- After recording 11 offensive caroms in the first half, Army was limited to one the rest of the way.
- Dating back to last season, Marist has won 13 games in a row.
- The Red Foxes have won 17 games in a row when Duffell scores in double figures, dating back to the start of her sophomore year.
- Barcello finished one point shy of her career-high, set last November against Central Michigan. Marist is 10-2 when she scores in double figures.
- Weimar is the first Red Fox to both start and score 10-plus points as a freshman in the season opener since Duffell notched 13 points in her collegiate debut against Navy on November 10, 2017.
- Saturday's game featured a matchup of the two winningest programs in Marist women's and men's basketball history in Brian Giorgis and Dave Magarity, respectively. The latter is the father of Red Fox alumnae and current head coach of Holy Cross women's basketball, Maureen Magarity.
- Marist welcomes Canisius to McCann Arena in the 2020-21 MAAC opening games on Friday, December 11th and Saturday, December 12th. Tip off times for both matchups will be at 5 p.m. on the ESPN app.
