To open 2024, the Red Foxes had no answer for the Iona Gaels and graduate student guard Natalia Otkhmezuri, who scored 38 points to hand Marist their 10th straight loss in their first game in 16 days.
The well-rested Red Foxes entered the new year attempting to leave their losing ways behind them; Marist lost their final nine games of 2023 after a 2-1 start. Entering today’s action, they looked to snap the losing streak before it reached double digit and ultimately fell 70-60.
Iona, the MAAC conference’s defending champions, have also gotten off to a slow start on their campaign to defend their title. With their win today, the Gaels concluded their own losing streak, a three-game skid that saw them lose their first two games of MAAC play to Niagara and Rider. Iona opened the calendar year two days ago with a 63-56 loss at Rider following a two-week hiatus of their own.
With both teams sitting at 0-2 in MAAC play, Iona took the initiative, finally getting in the win column, leaving Marist still searching for their first conference victory.
Following their 16-day break, the Red Foxes wasted no time getting their offense going. Redshirt sophomore guard Lexie Tarul got Marist on the board first with a corner three, senior forward Zaria Shazer followed with a coast-to-coast score, then Tarul added another jump shot to give the Red Foxes a quick 7-0 lead just over two minutes into play.
The Gaels returned the favor by scoring seven straight of their own, with Otkhmezuri scoring five, including a three-point shot to tie it up at seven nearly halfway through the quarter. From there, the sides went back and forth, sophomore center Morgan Lee hit two free throws, then Iona graduate student forward Sierra DeAngelo converted an and-one opportunity to give three Gaels their first lead of the afternoon.
The quarter’s highest scorers closed out play in the first as Shazer tallied four more points while Otkhmezuri added two. At the end of the first 10 minutes of play, Marist held a one-point advantage.
Otkhmezuri stayed hot, scoring 10 of Iona’s 16 points in the second quarter. Marist brought a more balanced attack, led by two threes from Tarul. Shazer contributed two points from the line, while freshman guard Julia Corsentino, junior guard Catie Cunningham, sophomore forward Ciara Croker and senior guard Kiara Fisher all got in on the scoring action.
Iona still won the quarter, outscoring Marist 16-14 in the second frame, good enough to give the Gaels a 28-27 halftime lead. 26 of Iona’s 28 points came from Otkhmezuri–who led all scorers with 15–and DeAngelo, who contributed nine.
Both offenses struggled to start the second half, as the first basket did not come until nearly a fourth of the way through the quarter. Junior guard Judith Gomez broke the ice with a bucket, kicking off an Iona run that saw them make six straight attempts.
Marist did their best to keep pace, but their effort proved to be in vain. With under two minutes to play, Gomez launched a three-pointer from the corner that bounced off the front of the rim high up in the air, then fell back down through the hoop, touching nothing but the net. Gomez’s triple–hitting nine points in the quarter–extended the Iona lead to double digits, where it stayed heading into the fourth quarter.
The Red Foxes did not quit following Iona’s big third quarter, bringing the deficit to seven points following a clutch 3-point shot from Jackie Piddock with a little under five minutes to play. However, Iona never let it become a two-possession ball game as the Otkhmezuri show rolled on. The graduate student scored 13 in the fourth quarter to set a new career high of 38 points, en route to a 70-60 victory for the Gaels.
The Red Foxes hung close, but Otkhmezuri’s scoring outburst overwhelmed Marist. Their next chance to end their losing streak comes this Thursday when the Red Foxes host the Rider Broncs at 7 p.m.
Edited by Dan Aulbach
Photo by Jaylen Rizzo
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