POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. — What a start to the season for the Women’s Basketball team.
After a dominant win over Navy last Sunday, the Foxes are rolling and off to a hot start now sitting at 2-0. Marist squared off with Boston University Friday night in the Red Foxes’ home opener and defeated the Terriers 68 to 57.
The McCann Center filled up and roared to life for the night despite the snowy weather conditions during of the preceding 24 hours. With the women coming out victorious, both Marist basketball teams have won their home openers.
“It feels awesome,” said junior guard Rebekah Hand. “The last two years we have had terrible starts, this is great for us.”
During the first half of the match-up, Marist controlled the game and outplayed BU in almost every aspect. By the end of the first quarter, the Foxes had jumped out to a 15-9 lead and didn’t look back through the second quarter. The biggest difference and advantage for Marist on the night was how well they played defensively. In the first half alone, they forced 13 turnovers and finished the night with 20 overall, while only turning the ball over 13 times.
What made this difference was how much Marist out-hustled Boston. They constantly attacked the ball and swarmed the Terriers which caused them to give up multiple possessions, and the Red Foxes capitalized on their mistakes.
The mistakes made by Boston cost them heavily, and Marist made them pay for it by the end of the game. The Foxes stole the ball away from the Terriers a total of 7 times. “We had made the adjustment at halftime, they were 6 of 14 from the three in the first half, and then 0 for 10 in the second half from three,” said head coach Brian Giorgis.
Despite a late push by Boston late in the first half, it was all Foxes in the second half. Once again, the smart basketball played by Marist allowed them to maintain the lead and grab points when they could.
On the night, it was the combination of junior forward Alana Gilmer, who was able to go 3-8 shooting and 6 of 6 from the free throw line to score 12 points, and Hand, who scored 15 of her own going 4-15 from the field and also scoring another 5 from the line.
From the bench, it was senior Lovisa Henningsdottir who made the biggest impact. She totaled 15 points and added two threes. Another key contributor was freshman Sarah Barcello who shot 3 of 4 from the field and gave the Foxes 8 points. After the game, Giorgis noted, “two games in a row we have had 20 points off the bench.”
Going forward if the team wants to keep their success going they will have to make some adjustments to their game. “It was a game that shows us what we need to work on, our interior defense, staying out of foul trouble, and we didn’t shoot the ball all that well today,” Giorgis said. The Foxes shot 37.5% from the field on the night and at times struggled outside the paint.
“We love playing at home, and we want to give our fans what they want and what we want,” said Henningsdottir. “And we want to make McCann like it used to be, it used to be hard coming here, people used to not like it, so we want to get back to the habit of having people afraid to play here”. Certainly after Marist’s 2-0 start and their defensive prowess, opponents should be afraid to enter the Fox Den.
Edited by Oscar Fick