Marist women’s basketball, desperate for a win having lost five straight, led Albany with under five minutes remaining, yet the Great Danes pulled off a 13-0 run to make it a sixth consecutive Marist loss.
Playing each other for the first time since 2020, both Marist (2-7) and Albany (7-2) had rough days shooting the ball, each shooting below 32% from the field and below 22% from three-point range. Each team’s assists, rebounds, points in the paint and shooting percentages were nearly dead-even, with marginally better efficiency and a late run making all the difference for Albany.
After a scoreless stretch over the first few minutes of play, Albany senior guard Kayla Cooper broke the ice with a layup. Marist sophomore guard Jackie Piddock then got a couple of buckets of her own, drilling a three and making a floater.
Albany graduate student guard Sarah Karpell tied things up at seven apiece by using a spin move in the paint to open herself up to make the runner. The Great Danes pulled off another slick play a minute later with junior guard Abby Ray finding Cooper on an effective cut toward the bucket.
Late in the first quarter, Marist appeared to tie things up at nine when junior guard Catie Cunningham drove in for a bucket, but it was waved off, with Cunningham receiving an offensive foul. At the end of one, Marist trailed by two, with the team’s leading scorer in senior forward Zaria Shazer and sixth man in freshman guard Julia Corsentino struggling to make shots during the first frame.
Corsentino got off the schneid with a corner three early in the second quarter, and Piddock followed it up with a drive-in bucket of her own. Minutes later, Ray made her mark for Albany, draining a midrange shot that rattled around the rim and then stealing the rock from Shazer on the next possession.
Marist redshirt sophomore guard Lexie Tarul got her first points of the day on a triple midway through the second quarter, the game at 15. Sophomore guard Morgan Tompkins gave Marist the lead by advancing deep into the paint, reversing directions and putting up a successful shot. For Tompkins, it marked her first points of the season since recently returning from an offseason injury.
On the final possession of the first half, Shazer fed Corsentino outside the arc, and she drove in and made the buzzer-beater layup to give Marist a 21-19 lead.
“I thought we did a really nice job on the defensive end,” said Marist head coach Erin Doughty during the ESPN halftime report. “They’re a tough [team to] guard because they can score at all five positions and two or three kids coming off the bench as well. We wanted to limit them to one shot, we contested their shooters well and we wanted to own the paint, and I thought we did that in the first half.”
Piddock put herself into double-digit scoring on the day with a triple from the wing that gave Marist a 26-22 lead early on in the third quarter. The Marist offense continued humming along during this stretch, with Tarul threading in a dime to Shazer in the paint, who finished the job and pushed the lead to six.
Albany did manage to hang around, with layups from Cooper and junior guard Lilly Phillips tightening things up. Shazer finally got going with a midrange shot and then a baseline shot, giving the Red Foxes a 33-28 lead with just over ten minutes remaining in the game.
Coming into the fourth quarter trailing 33-30, a sequence of events around the seven-minute mark swung momentum in Albany’s favor. After Karpell swished a free throw, Albany applied a successful full-court press to Piddock; overwhelming her, and she ceded the ball to Cooper, who stole it and made the emphatic layup to tie things at 33.
“I mean she’s just an unbelievable player,” said Albany head coach Colleen Mullen after the game. “We’re just so lucky that she’s on our side. She impacts the game on both ends of the floor.”
Cooper gave the Great Danes a three-point lead moments later. Phillips fed her inside and Cooper did the rest of the work in getting past Shazer for the bucket in the paint and drawing the foul; she swished her free throw attempt.
Shazer then attacked the basket on back-to-back possessions to put Marist back in front 37-36 with less than five minutes to play.
From there, the wheels fell off for Marist, as they allowed Albany to go on a 13-0 run.
The run began with a couple of Cooper free throws, and then graduate student forward Helene Haegerstrand drilled a three from the left wing. Marist failed to respond, as sophomore forward Ciara Croker coughed up the next possession on a shot clock violation.
The Haegerstrand avalanche continued, as she made a jumper with three minutes left and a layup on a great Cooper feed, giving the Great Danes a comfortable eight-point cushion with two minutes to play. At the final whistle, Albany had prevailed 49-39.
The Red Foxes are reeling heading into MAAC play, with the injury of the team’s primary ball handler, senior point guard Kiara Fisher, looming large as the offense has struggled to click during the six-game losing streak. Marist is banking on a return from Fisher to help reignite their side with conference play starting in their next game against Saint Peter’s; tipoff is next Saturday at 2 p.m. in Jersey City. The Peacocks have faced struggles of their own, posting a 2-5 record to start the year.
Edited by Ben Leeds
Graphic by Ben Monrad
Photo from Jaylen Rizzo
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