POUGHKEEPSIE, New York – Senior captain
Allie Best dropped a career-high 17 points, sophomore guard
Trinasia Kennedy added 11 points, and the Red Foxes grinded out a 52-44 victory over Manhattan on Saturday evening at McCann Arena.
Marist is 6-1 for the first time since the 2018-19 season, and 4-1 in the MAAC. Manhattan falls to 5-4 this year and 5-2 against conference foes.
With the score tied at 40 halfway through the fourth quarter, Kennedy squeezed through the Jasper defense and finished at acrobatic layup while drawing a foul, completing the nostalgic three-point play to give Marist a three-point lead.
Manhattan responded with a jumper to cut the lead to one, but junior guard
Sarah Barcello drilled a three-pointer with 2:06 to play, fending off the Jaspers and putting the Red Foxes ahead 46-42, a lead they would not relinquish.
Freshman forward
Caitlin Weimar notched a career-best with 12 rebounds to lead Marist, while Best tied a career-high with eight boards, dishing out five assists.
Pam Miceus paced Manhattan with 11 points, while Courtney Warley had a double-double with 10 points and 13 rebounds.
- Marist scored the first eight points of the ballgame in almost two and a half minutes, with five coming from Kennedy.
- The Red Foxes went on a brief scoring drought as Manhattan came within 11-9, but Weimar and Best scored on consecutive possessions to close the first quarter with a 16-10 Marist lead.
- Though Marist didn't score for the first 1:41 in the second quarter, Kennedy buried a three, and Best led a stretch for DeMember-Shazer's transition layup, forcing a Jasper timeout with the Foxes ahead 21-12.
- Manhattan and Marist then entered a four-minute pause on the scoreboard. Both teams combined to shoot 7-for-39 in the stanza.
- Emily LaPointe nailed a three-pointer at the halftime buzzer, but Marist maintained a 24-19 edge.
- Christina Katsamouri and Pam Miceus both put the Jaspers within one possession of Marist in the first five minutes of the third quarter, but Best's three-pointer and Duffell's Jumper returned the lead to seven with 3:30 left in the rame.
- Solid ball movement from the Red Foxes led to a Barcello layup on the left block for a 38-31 Marist advantage after three.
- Manhattan kept Marist off the scoreboard in the fourth quarter for the first 4:14 of the fourth quarter, until Weimar banked in a shot off an inbound play.
- Barcello's three sparked a 7-0 run for Marist, which included a Best layup before the shot clock expired, and a charge from Kennedy on LaPointe the other way. Marist went ahead 50-42 once Barcello hooped two foul shots.
- Both teams shot less than 30 percent in the game. Neither team had a quarter shooting better than 40 percent.
- The Red Foxes shot 43 percent (9-of-21) from distance, compared to just 18 percent (3-of-16) for the Jaspers.
- Though Marist's largest lead in this game was only nine points (21-12), the Red Foxes never trailed in the game. This is the second game this season Marist never fell behind its opponent (Canisius, December 12th).
- The Red Foxes had an assist on 83 percent of their field goals, their highest percentage of the season.
- Forty-eight of Marist's 52 points came from the starting lineup.
- Kennedy was a team-high +17 on the floor for the Red Foxes.
- Best surpassed her career-high from November 14th, 2017 against Holy Cross. Her 26 points in her last two games is the most she's scored in that long of a stretch in her career. The career-high tying four three-pointers she shot was also from that game against the Crusaders.
- Kennedy now has three games this season with 10 or more points, a feat she accomplished once during her freshman campaign.
- With a three-pointer in the second half, senior captain Willow Duffell has set a season-best from last year with five triples. She has 10 threes in 99 career contests.
- Marist has now gone eight straight games holding their opponent to less than 40 percent shooting, dating back to last year's MAAC Quarterfinal.
- Entering Saturday, Marist was one of nine schools in Division I to lead its conference in both scoring offense and scoring defense. The other eight teams are FGCU (ASUN), Baylor (Big 12), UConn (Big East), NC A&T (MEAC), Illinois State (MVC), Stanford (Pac-12), Mercer (SoCon), and South Dakota (Summit).
- The all-time series now favors Marist 37-24.
- Before the game, a moment of silence was held for Marist College Life Trustee Mike Duffy, an avid fan of the women's basketball program, after he passed away on December 30th, 2020.
- Elsewhere, Marist alumnae and Holy Cross Women's Head Coach Maureen Magarity faced off against her father, former Marist Men's Head Coach and Army West Point Head Coach Dave Magarity, in what is believed to be the first father-daughter coaching matchup in NCAA Division I history. Maureen and the Crusaders came out on top, 80-46.
- Head Coach Brian Giorgis and Best met with the media after Saturday's game.
- The Red Foxes and Jaspers re-engage at McCann Arena on Sunday, January 10th at 5 p.m.
