HAMDEN, Connecticut – Junior guard
Sarah Barcello recorded the first 25-point game of her career, senior captain notched a career-high 11 assists with zero turnovers, and Marist forced 23 Quinnipiac turnovers to capture a 69-50 victory on Sunday afternoon at the People's United Center.
The Red Foxes now sit at 3-0 in the MAAC and 5-0 overall. The Bobcats drop to 1-2 against conference foes and 3-4 on the season.
Barcello becomes the first Red Fox since
Rebekah Hand on February 20th, 2020 to score 25 points in a game. The Chandler, Arizona native was 10-of-16 from the field, including 3-of-6 from distance, and snagged four rebounds.
Senior captain
Willow Duffell added 13 points and nine boards, while freshman forward
Caitlin Weimar earned her second-straight double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds.
Mackenzie DeWees led Quinnipiac with 14 points, while Cur'Tiera Haywood added 11 points.
- Marist hit its first three shots of the game, courtesy of Weimar, Duffell, and Best in that order.
- After Mikala Morris hit a three for Quinnipiac, Duffell responded with her own to make it 9-5 Foxes.
- The first points in the second quarter did not come from either team until 2:34 in, as Weimar got an offensive rebound on the right block and put it back.
- Quinnipiac did not score in the frame until the 5:23 mark.
- After the media timeout with 3:40 to play until halftime, Trinasia Kennedy scooped up a Quinnipiac ball, converted a layup, then sank a three-pointer to push the Marist lead to 28-12.
- The Bobcats went on a 7-0 spurt after that, but Marist scored the final four points of the stanza, including Sarah Barcello's backdoor cut layup from an Allie Best dish just before the buzzer.
- Marist opened the third quarter with a straightaway three from Best, a second-chance bucket for the Foxes, to create a 35-19 advantage.
- Quinnipiac got to within seven points, going 9-9 from the foul line in the opening five minutes of the frame, but Best found Duffell for a layup to make it 39-30 as the clock read 5:26.
- That play ignited an 11-2 Red Fox run, with Kennedy's layup making it 48-32 moments before the end of the quarter.
- After Quinnipiac cut its deficit to 51-41, Barcello responded with 13 straight points to return the lead to 16 points with 2:42 left, tied for the largest of the afternoon at that time.
- The largest lead came when freshman forward Zaria DeMember-Shazer collected two offensive rebounds, sinking a hook shot after the second and drawing a foul. Her free throw made it 69-48 in the final minutes.
- Marist shot a season-low 37.7 percent from the field, but also took a season-high 69 shots.
- Both sides hit 50 percent of their shots in the third quarter, but did not shoot better than 40 percent in any of the other frames.
- Quinnipiac had 14 turnovers in the first half, and shot just 1-11 from beyond the arc in that period.
- Eight of Weimar's 11 rebounds were on the offensive glass. In total, the Red Foxes had 17 offensive boards and 38 overall.
- The Red Foxes had the advantage in fastbreak points (15-7), points off turnovers (15-6), points in the paint (36-24), and second-chance points (15-7).
- Junior guard Kendall Krick led the team with three steals. Marist had 11 swipes for the first time since February 1st, 2020 against Niagara.
- Marist has won 15 straight MAAC contests, 14 of them in the regular season.
- The winning streak improves to 17 games. Marist is guaranteed to have not lost a game in a month other than January during the calendar year until next month.
- In all five games this season, the Red Foxes have won by 19 or more points.
- This is the first time in program history Marist has won five straight games to begin the season in three consecutive years. The Red Foxes have never started a season 6-0.
- Marist is 3-0 to begin MAAC play for the third time in four years.
- Best now has 32 assists to just one turnover on the season, extending her NCAA-leading assist/turnover ratio.
- After averaging 6.3 points per game a season ago, Barcello is now scoring 17.8 points per contest, a +11.5 improvement.
- Dating back to November 24th, 2018, the Red Foxes have won 20 games in a row when Duffell scores 10 or more points.
- DeMember-Shazer now has four games in a row with five or more rebounds, with her five offensive boards on Sunday a season-high.
- The two teams return to the hardwood on Monday, January 4th at 3 p.m. to conclude their regular season series. Marist vies for its first four-game winning streak against Quinnipiac.
