For the second straight game, Marist women’s basketball put on a solid performance until it mattered most, allowing Siena to squeak out a 71-67 win.
Siena (11-8, 8-3 MAAC conference) came in having won six of seven, but the Saints had to fight for this one, as Marist (5-15, 3-7 MAAC) led 64-62 with just over a minute remaining. Despite senior forward Zaria Shazer (23 points, 10 rebounds) and junior guard Catie Cunningham (12 points, 14 rebounds) each posting double-doubles while shooting around 60% from the floor, the Red Foxes once again could not finish off their opponent in a key MAAC matchup.
Cunningham immediately displayed her ability to give Marist second chances; on the first Marist possession, she nabbed the offensive board and made a layup. Siena quickly responded with a three-ball from senior guard Ahniysha Jackson. Jackson makes up half of the Saints’ two-headed guard monster, as both she and sophomore guard Teresa Seppala came into play averaging a team-high 12.3 points.
Senior point guard Kiara Fisher collected her first points of the day midway through the quarter with a driving layup. Her return to the lineup was a welcome sight for Marist after she missed Thursday’s game with an injury, although she got off to a rough start in shooting 1-7 during the first half.
“[Fisher’s] not 100% as you can tell, she battled through tonight,” said Marist head coach Erin Doughty. “We’re more confident when she’s on the floor.”
“You can’t really trade in that expertise and just the senior-level knowledge that [Fisher] has,” added Shazer. “Having her out there means a lot to us, even more just for the morale.”
Marist could not capitalize on open looks later in the first quarter. In contrast, Siena caught a break when Jackson’s buzzer-beat jumper hit the back of the rim, bounced up and then in, giving the Saints a 16-8 lead at the end of one.
With Marist searching for answers offensively, redshirt sophomore guard Lexie Tarul immediately hit a three to start the second quarter. Fisher then had a costly sequence in which she committed two consecutive turnovers on her end of the court; freshman Siena guard Ciany Conyers took advantage of both mistakes, making a driving layup and a 3-pointer to give Siena a 10-point advantage.
“Coming off the bench, Conyers, she can really shoot it. [Siena] has a lot of weapons, and we didn’t really match up well with a lot of them,” said Doughty.
Shazer then activated her own scoring run, highlighted by a fast-break layup on a full-court assist from Cunningham. She then corraled an offensive rebound and finished with a layup, and then collected another long-range assist and made the layup. Her efforts cut the Marist deficit to four just before the end of the first half, during which she had a game-high 13 points on 5-8 shooting.
“People aren’t just coming in here and beating us up, we’re giving everybody a fight,” said Shazer.
Cunningham continued to be a force for Marist, earning her sixth offensive rebound of the half and making a layup through a foul to bring the Red Foxes within one. At the half, the Siena lead had narrowed to 28-27.
Sophomore center Morgan Lee reclaimed the lead for Marist by opening the third quarter with a 3-pointer from the wing and Cunningham notched her seventh offensive rebound, parlaying it into a layup.
“I think that especially since we’ve been having a lot of offensive struggles, [Cunningham] has been able to get those easy layups and getting in there and working hard to get something like a rebound,” said Shazer.
Both teams sizzled from downtown in the third quarter; Marist received 3-point contributions from Lee, Tarul, Cunningham and sophomore guard Jackie Piddock, while Seppala and Jackson each buried a pair of triples for Siena. After the scoring barrage, the game was all knotted up at 50 apiece with one quarter left to play.
After Siena went up by four, Tarul brought Marist back within one on her third made three of the game. With six minutes remaining, Shazer stole the lead back for Marist in emphatic fashion, as she banked in her fourth-made 3-pointer of the entire season to make it 58-56.
Seppala continued her strong second half by tying the game at 62 with under two minutes remaining. Fisher came alive with a teardrop floater to put Marist back in front with just over a minute left, but a Seppala three and a driving layup from sophomore guard Elisa Mevius gave Siena a 67-64 lead with 32 ticks remaining. Fisher’s uneven performance continued on the ensuing possession, as she committed her game-high eighth turnover; Siena ultimately salted the game away with free throws.
“Our locker room is not happy right now, and that’s good, but they know that they showed people what we can be tonight. We’ll be better moving forward, but I think tonight was a step in the right direction even though it wasn’t the result we would want,” said Doughty.
Marist’s next chance to put a full 40-minute performance together will come on Thursday when they take on Fairfield on the road at 11 a.m.
Edited by Ben Leeds
Photo and graphic from Jaylen Rizzo
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