After more than eleven months, the streak is over.
Marist dropped a 59-55 overtime thriller at Quinnipiac on Monday afternoon. The loss broke a 17-game overall winning streak, a 15-game MAAC winning streak, and foiled the Red Foxes’ intentions of moving to 6-0, which would have been their best start in program history. It was the first Marist loss since January 30, 2020 at Fairfield.
“It was a hard-fought game, and I thought the kids showed a lot of resilience,” Said Marist head coach Brian Giorgis. “We learned that we can play with one of the top teams in the conference even though we didn’t execute very well.”
The teams went back and forth in the overtime period, but the Red Foxes never led after the end of regulation. Trailing 57-55 in the waning seconds, Allie Best had a chance to be the hero with a good look from three. Her attempt came up just short, and Rose Caverly iced the game for Quinnipiac, making two free throws with under a second left.
“We haven’t got to work a whole lot on end of game situations as much as I would have liked,” Explained Giorgis. “We made some mistakes down the stretch and the kids were tired. I’ve got to learn to trust our younger players. Allie Best had the chance to win it but she played the most of anyone and didn’t have any legs at the end.”
For the second straight afternoon, the Red Foxes (5-1, 3-1 in the MAAC) struggled from the field. Today’s output, however, was by far their worst shooting exhibition of the season as they went 19-for-64 (30 percent) from the floor and four-for-19 (21 percent) from distance. Marist was 13-for-18 from the free throw, but missed some crucial ones down the stretch. After doing a good job taking care of the ball in the first five games, the Red Foxes committed 17 turnovers against 14 assists.
Willow Duffell put together a monstrous double-double with 18 points and 17 rebounds, leading the team in both categories. Caitlin Weimar was the only other Marist player in double-figures with 11.
After going for 25 points yesterday, Sarah Barcello came back to earth with four points on two-for-13 shooting.
Quinnipiac (4-4, 2-2 in the MAAC) shot 20-for-60 (33 percent) from the field and 15-for-19 from the charity stripe. After 23 turnovers in the previous, the Bobcats afforded themselves more possessions today, cutting down to 16 giveaways and tying Marist with 45 rebounds.
Mackenzie DeWees finished with a game-high 20 and added nine rebounds. Amani Free contributed 15 and Caverly had 13, including the game-clinching free throws. Mikala Morris had eight points and also contributed 14 rebounds in the victory.
Marist jumped out to a quick 7-0 lead, but the Bobcats eventually found their footing on offense and opened up a 12-9 lead. Quinnipiac threw in a 2-3 zone, which confused the Red Foxes, but they managed to score the last four points of the quarter and take a 13-12 lead into the second.
After a slow start to the second, the Bobcats went scored seven straight, capped off by a DeWees three-point play, to take a 23-16 lead with under three minutes to play in the half. The lid remained on the basket until the very end of the half for Marist, who shot a putrid two-for-18 in the quarter and had a scoring drought that lasted six minutes. Weimar scored four points in the last 58 seconds, but the Red Foxes trailed 29-20 at halftime.
“We lost the game in the second quarter,” Giorgis said. “We couldn’t make a shot but you’ve got to give credit to Quinnipiac’s defense for playing so well. We tried to force things that weren’t there.”
Best hit her second three of the game 10 seconds into the half to cut the deficit down to six, and Weimar hit a jumper to make it 32-27 with just over five minutes remaining in the third. On the other end, a Caverly three stretched the lead back up to eight. The adversity only heightened for Marist when Barcello went to the bench after picking up her fourth personal on a charging call.
The Red Foxes responded with seven in a row to bring the deficit back to 35-34, but Quinnipiac distanced themselves once again with a 6-0 run, capped by a transition layup from Caverly. Trinasia Kennedy hit a crucial three to make it 41-37 with ten minutes left.
Marist’s six of the first eight points of the fourth quarter, as well as a shot from Duffell off a feed from Best tied the game at 43 with just under six minutes left. Best doled out another assist off an out-of-bounds play when she found Kendall Krick for Marist’s first lead since the second quarter. After a Weimar mid-range jumper made it 47-43, DeWees hit a three to make it a one-point game. Best hit two free throws to make it 49-46, but when she went back to the line with 5 seconds left with her team up by a point, she could only hit one of the two foul shots. Trailing 50-48, the Bobcats went to Caverly, who tied the game at 50 with a runner with a second left.
The Red Foxes will be back in action on Saturday night when they host Manhattan. Tip-off is set for 5 p.m.
Edited by Mackenzie Meaney
Photo by Marist Athletics
