POUGHKEEPSIE, New York - Senior captain
Rebekah Hand unloaded 20 points, 10 rebounds, and six assists, redshirt senior captain
Alana Gilmer dropped 19 points on 9-15 shooting, and Marist Women's Basketball avenged its January 30 loss to Fairfield with a convincing 75-45 victory over the Stags on Monday evening at McCann Arena.
Marist extended its season-best winning streak to eight games to move to 15-2 in the MAAC and 22-4 overall. The win clinches a top-two spot for the Red Foxes in next month's MAAC Championships, meaning that the Red Foxes will open conference tournament play on Wednesday, March 11.
Fairfield falls to 10-6 in conference play, and moves to 13-12 overall.
Redshirt senior captain
Grace Vander Weide chipped in 10 points, six rebounds, and six assists. Junior forward
Willow Duffell had nine boards.
Lou Lopez-Senechal led the Stags with 16 points.
- Marist started 0-4 as Fairfield jumped out to a 5-0 lead.
- Gilmer put the Red Foxes on the board with a fastbreak layup from Rebekah Hand at the 5:52 mark of the first quarter.
- Marist proceeded to rattle off a 16-0 run that stretched into the second quarter, silencing the Stags for 7:20.
- With 51 seconds left in the opening frame, Rebekah Hand escaped a baseline double team to find senior guard Hannah Hand for a cutting layup.
- Three minutes into the second, the captains staged a 9-0 run, starting with a Vander Weide three. Marist was on top 27-9 at the end of the run.
- The Red Foxes went into the locker room with a 33-16 advantage at halftime.
- Rebekah Hand opened the third with a pair of layups, with one coming downhill from Gilmer at the top of the paint.
- As the clock read 6:08 in the third, Gilmer drove from the left wing and eurostepped through two Stags for the basket, coercing Fairfield into taking a timeout with the score 44-20 Marist.
- Redshirt junior forward Molly Smith's left-block layup capped a 12-0 Red Fox run midway through the stanza.
- In the final 13 seconds of the third, junior forward Willow Duffell nabbed an offensive rebound and went back up for two to double up Fairfield 60-30.
- Hannah Hand stole the ball with six minutes remaining, and sophomore guard Kendall Krick hit a right-side jumper to put Marist up 71-37, its largest advantage of the game.
- Marist shot 50 percent from the field, its 13th game hitting half or more attempts. The Red Foxes went 10-13 (76.9 percent) in the third quarter.
- The Red Foxes brought down a season-high 47 rebounds. The home team almost had as many offensive rebounds (16) as Fairfield had total rebounds (17).
- Rebekah Hand's 20 points and 10 rebounds were a game-high. She and Vander Weide both led the team with six assists.
- This was the 16th game of the season where Gilmer, Hand, and Vander Weide all scored in double figures.
- As a team, the Red and White had 38 points in the paint and 13 second-chance points.
Â
- Gilmer moved into seventh place on Marist's all-time scoring list, passing Julianne Viani. She now has 1,456 points.
- Rebekah Hand surpassed Ursula Winter for fourth place all-time in made free throws. The senior now has 376 career points from the foul line.
- She also recorded her 16th career double-double.
- For the first time since the 2014-15 season, Marist has 10 wins at McCann Arena.
- It is also the first time since 2014-15 that the Red Foxes have 15 wins in conference play. Under Head Coach Brian Giorgis, Marist has 12 seasons with 15 or more MAAC victories.
- The Red Foxes now lead the all-time series over Fairfield 37-20.
- In the last two games at home against the Stags, Marist has won by a combined total of 71 points.
- The Red Foxes showed their support for the Friends of Jaclyn Foundation with pregame shootaround t-shirts.
- Marist hits the road for its final regular season contest away from Poughkeepsie, facing Quinnipiac on Saturday, February 29 at 2 p.m.
