When you lose on senior night, you usually don’t get another chance at redemption on your home floor. Luckily, Marist women’s basketball has one more home game.
That is likely the only positive the Red Foxes will be able to take after a 77-49 drubbing at the hands of Route 9 rival Siena on Saturday night at the McCann Center.
It took the Red Foxes nearly 13 minutes to make a shot, in which time Siena scored 21 points in a row to put it comfortably ahead. At one point in the first half, the visitors held a 27-point lead as Marist missed its first 14 shots.
The Red Foxes dug themselves too big of a hole. There was some momentum toward the end of the first half but another frosty start to the second meant the outcome was sealed.
The shooting numbers were as bad as you would expect. Marist (11-14, 7-9 in the MAAC) shot 23 percent from the floor and 5-for-21 from three. The Red Foxes didn’t record a make from inside the arc until a few minutes into the second half.
The home team committed 19 turnovers and did not get a contribution from the bench until McKenna Rife made two free throws with less than three minutes to play.
Kiara Fisher had a game-high 18 points for Marist.
The story continued to be one step forward, one step backward. After playing well on offense at Manhattan, the Red Foxes could not back that performance up on Saturday.
On the nostalgic side, Marist honored Kendall Krick, Sam Bailey, and Julianna Bonilla before the game. With Brian Giorgis’ retirement ceremony scheduled for next Saturday, the seniors were rightly given a spotlight of their own.
The seniors departed the game together down 65-41 with 4:02 remaining.
There was, at least, more sentimentality in the air as Kiara Fisher was presented a ball for her 44-point performance against Mount St. Mary’s earlier this season and former Marist great Rebekah Hand served as the honorary guest coach.
On her second (and final) senior night of her career, Krick was re-inserted into the starting lineup and was the lone spark early on. She finished the night with 10 points.
Siena (17-10, 11-6 in the MAAC) shot 43 percent from the floor and hit seven three-pointers in the second half and nine overall.
Valencia Fontonelle-Posson had 17 to lead the Saints.
The visitors dominated in pretty much every statistical category. They controlled the rebounding margin, had a 30-14 advantage in points in the paint, and outscored Marist 23-8 in bench points.
Siena has beaten Marist four consecutive times, sweeping the season series for the second straight year.
It was either a bad set or a turnover (or both) seemingly every time to begin the game for the Red Foxes. Marist gave the ball away eight times in the opening quarter.
The frustration continued as Siena extended its run to 21 consecutive points as Marist missed its first 14 shots and burned through two timeouts before Krick mercifully ended the drought with a three to make it 21-6 with 7:14 left in the first half.
Seeing the ball go through the net didn’t have much of an effect on Marist, as the Saints continued to pour it on against a dispirited home team. Fontonelle-Posson hit a three as part of a 12-0 Saints run that made it 33-6 with just under four minutes left in the half.
Krick made her second three (and her team’s second field goal) of the first half to break the run. The Red Foxes would finally get some momentum with Fisher netting a three to cap a 10-0 run and make it 33-16 going into the locker room.
Even with some positive feelings, the Red Foxes were still shooting just 3-for-26 from the floor. Ironically, all three of those makes came from outside the arc. Marist was 0-for-15 on two-pointers.
While Siena wasn’t doing much against the Red Foxes’ defense, which took the rare shape of a 2-3 zone for some of the game, Marist continued to be inept on offense.
Another lengthy scoring drought enabled the Saints to build their lead back up to 41-16 before Shazer opened Marist’s second-half account with a deep two at the 4:33 mark of the third quarter.
At the third quarter media timeout, Marist had nearly as many turnovers (15) as it did points (16).
Siena diced Marist from the perimeter to end the third and a 30-foot buzzer-beater from Fisher was met by nothing more than a shrug from the shooter.
It made the score 57-27.
Marist will return to action on Thursday when it travels to Fairfield and the brand-new Mahoney Arena to face the Stags. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m.
Edited by Ricardo Martinez
Photo from Marist Athletics
