POUGHKEEPSIE, New York – Following a pause of team activities due to COVID-19 contact tracing protocols, the Marist women's basketball program resumes its season with a two-game set against Rider on Sunday, February 7th and Monday, February 8th at McCann Arena.
 

HOW TO FOLLOW

• Sunday's contest begins at 1 p.m. and airs on ESPN+.
• Monday's matchup takes place at 5 p.m. on ESPN3.
• Geoff Brault and Steve Eggink have the call of both games.
• Live statistics are available courtesy of GoRedFoxes.com.
• @MaristWBB on Twitter will have live updates and in-game highlights.

 

last time out

• The Red Foxes swept Niagara on January 22-23 in Western New York.
• On the 22nd, Willow Duffell dropped a career-high 27 points to secure a 66-60 win in overtime, the program's first since November 24th, 2013.
• On Saturday the 23rd, Caitlin Weimar had a career-high 19 points to go with 11 boards in a 67-45 triumph for the Red Foxes. The effort resulted in Weimar's fifth MAAC Rookie of the Week award this year.
• Marist is the only MAAC team with eight conference wins and 10 total wins on the season.

 

changes to the schedule

• Following this series, Marist heads up I-87 to visit Siena on Friday, February 12th and Saturday, February 13th.
• Marist's home contests against Monmouth have been adjusted to Friday, February 26th and Saturday, February 27th.
• For the updated schedule, click here.

 

tiebreaker scenarios

• According to the MAAC's tiebreaker policy for the 2020-21 season only, if there are an uneven amount of games played by any teams, seedings for MAAC Championships will be determined by conference regular season wins, and head-to-head results serving as tiebreaker.
• For the full tiebreaker policy, click here.
• Marist leads the MAAC with eight conference wins heading into the weekend.

 

run the offense

• Marist leads the MAAC with 64.1 points per game.
• The Red Foxes have paced the conference in that category the previous two season.
• Seven of Marist's 10 victories have come by 18 or more points, putting their scoring margin of +13.2 the 35th-highest mark in Division I.

 

defend the den

• Marist leads the conference in scoring defense and field goal percentage defense, and is 5th in the nation at allowing just 50.9 points per game and 13th with a 34.1 FG% defense.
• No opponent has scored more than 61 points against Marist in the Red Foxes' first 12 games, and just once has Marist allowed a team to shoot more than 40 percent.
• The single-season program record in each category is 49.7 PPG allowed and 33.2 FG% defense, both set in the 2010-11 season.
• Marist had 28 steals in its series against Niagara, the most in a two-game stretch in at least more than seven years.

 

Mid-Major rise

• On Tuesday, CollegeInsider.com released its weekly Women's Mid-Major Top 25 poll, comprised of votes from mid-major head coaches across the country.
• Marist was ranked 22nd in the poll, its highest ranking of the year.

#ICYMI Our highest @collegeinsider Women's Mid-Major Top 25 ranking of the season! #GoRedFoxes pic.twitter.com/9KeL9WipHB

— Marist WBB (@MaristWBB) February 5, 2021

High score

• Five different Red Foxes have led the team in scoring in a game during the 2020-21 season.
• Of those players, three have set career-highs with 25 or more points:

Player	Points	Game
Willow Duffell	27	At Niagara, 1/22/21
Trinasia Kennedy	26	At Fairfield, 1/16/21
Sarah Barcello	25	At Quinnipiac, 1/3/21

 

studious student-athletes

• On Wednesday, Allie Best was named MAAC Student-Athlete of the Week.
• Marist's Center for Student-Athlete Enhancement named Trinasia Kennedy its Female Student-Athlete of the Month for February.

 

milestone watch

• Best is 13 assists away from tying Corielle Yarde for 10th all-time at Marist with 321 career assists.
• Duffell is 15 baskets away from 300 in her career. This would make her eligible for Marist's top 10 list in field goal percentage. Her current mark of .486 would tie for eighth with Sabrina Vallery and Madeline Blais.

 

scouting the broncs

• Rider is 5-14 on the season, and 4-10 in MAAC play.
• The Broncs have won three straight, including an overtime victory over Quinnipiac and a sweep of Monmouth on January 30th and 31st.
• Makayla Firebaugh, the MAAC's current Player and Rookie of the Week, leads the team with 10.3 points per game, and is one of six players averaging 6.5 points or better on the season.
• The Broncs were picked seventh in the MAAC Preseason Poll after going 26-4 last season.

 

series history

• Marist and Rider meet for the 65th time in series history. The Red Foxes have a 46-18 advantage, the most wins for Marist against a MAAC opponent in program history.
• Last year, the road teams were the victors: Rider earned a 76-72 overtime win on January 16th, but Marist got its revenge on February 11th in the form of a 63-58 triumph.
• In Poughkeepsie, Marist is 22-8 all-time over the Broncs, though Rider has won three of the last four matchups at McCann Arena.