Marist women’s basketball is coming off a tough year after posting their worst regular season performance since the 1998-99 season. A 6-25 record (4-16 MAAC Conference) is one that the Red Foxes would like to leave behind them.
As head coach Erin Doughty enters her second year with the program as head coach, the team zeroed in on a moment of honesty and an overall search for improvement.
“I think with this group it started last spring,” said Doughty. “We sat down and had hard conversations with individuals and discussed things that needed to be different, and they were all on the same page. I think that was really a testament to all of them willing to be uncomfortable and hear things about themselves that needed to be better.”
One key difference for the 2024-25 season is the offensive side of the ball. The 2023-24 Red Foxes shot just 35.3% from the field [the second-lowest percentage in the MAAC] and leaned heavily on the likes of forward Zaria Shazer. Averaging 13.7 points per game last season, the Red Foxes must seek other alternatives for scoring after the senior last reportedly transferred to Fordham University.
“This is not a team that’s structured where Zaria and Kiara [Fisher] are taking 15 shots each and we’re really relying on them anymore,” said Doughty. “It’s a team where the opportunities are going to be spread out and we might have different leading scorers every night and I think that makes us a little more dangerous because you can’t take away just one person.”
Doughty mentioned that the juniors have taken a big leap in larger roles this season, including guards Jackie Piddock, Jayne Whitman, Morgan Thompkins and redshirt junior Lexie Tarul. Both Piddock and Tarul received plenty of minutes last season, with Piddock being one of the main ball handlers and Tarul showing how she can be a threat from long range.
Forward Ciara Croker and center Morgan Lee round out the junior class for the Red Foxes, with both seeing elevated minutes towards the end of their sophomore campaigns.
“I think it’s going to be distributed more among all of us,” said Lee. “We have a bunch of shooters on the floor so our 3-point shooting is going to be a big emphasis for us.”
While the game plan is set for a more spread-out offense and having a different leading scorer each night, Lee is the top offensive choice. In the final five games of the season, where Lee played 33.4 minutes per game, she averaged 13.4 points, 8.2 rebounds, and 2.2 blocks, which gives her some more optimism in her game for this season.
“I think she spent a lot of last year getting her confidence back,” said Doughty. “I think you’ll see a much more confident kid, someone who wants the ball, wants to take the big shots and just be someone that we run the offense through.”
“It definitely gave me confidence going into this season,” said Lee on her late-season performances. “It helped me figure out where my spots are, where I’m most comfortable and just where to find my teammates on the court.”
The Red Foxes are a relatively young squad, with just two seniors and one graduate student transfer. One of the seniors is forward Catie Cunningham, one of Marist’s most impactful players last season.
Cunningham averaged 6.2 points, 7.5 rebounds and totaled 34 steals across 30 games in her junior year. The team held opponents to 29% from 3-point distance (fourth in MAAC) and 38% from the field (second in MAAC) largely in part due to Cunningham’s trustworthy defensive play.
“She [Cunningham] is always willing to dive on the floor and she wants to guard the team’s best player,” said Doughty. “I think she’s really a lead by example kind of player. She’s not a kid that says a lot, but when she does, it’s impactful.”
A key offensive aspect to look at for this season is how the Red Foxes will refine their numbers in the turnover category. Marist averaged 17.5 turnovers a game, the fourth worst in the MAAC.
“Our shooting percentage had to be quite efficient last year given how much we were turning it over and it just left us with very little room for error,” said Doughty. “We’ve definitely been working on it in practice and putting an emphasis on it, so it has to be a lot better.”
As Marist aims to lower the turnover rate, the potential added pressure of shooting the ball at a higher percentage should be taken off a tad. The Red Foxes shot 29.1% from long range last season which ranked seventh in the MAAC. A pair of freshmen who are poised to help in that category are guards Danielle Williamsen and Chloe Escanillas.
Williamsen played basketball at St. Joseph by-the-Sea High School where she set the school record for most career points, reaching 1,767 this past year.
“Danny [Danielle] Williamsen has shown that she’ll be able to help from the start,” said Doughty. “She’s got a great demeanor about her. She’s willing to take the big shot and she’s been learning how to read defenses and how people are going to guard her.”
Escanillas played at Rutgers Prep School, where she averaged 10.7 points and 2.3 three pointers made per game this past season.
“Chloe can really shoot it,” said Doughty. “She comes from a really good high school program and in terms of catch and shoot, it’s a surprise when she misses a shot.”
The Red Foxes’ last-place finish in the standings last year led to them receiving a No. 11 ranking in the MAAC preseason coaches poll this season.
“The fact of the matter is none of those people that have voted have been in our gym,” said Doughty. “We’ll take it as a chip on our shoulder and say ‘this is what you think of us? That’s fine, we’re going to prove you wrong.’”
While new adjustments have happened to the team, a change in the MAAC tournament bracket also took place this offseason. Instead of all 11 [now 13] MAAC Conference teams making the playoffs, only the top-10 teams in the standings earning a spot.
“I think it shows us how each game is important and how we need to win as much as possible,” said Cunningham. “We’re not just going to get handed a spot in the MAAC tournament anymore, so each game we need to show up and give 110% no matter what.”
Being a senior, Cunningham is undoubtedly on the search to avenge the past season and grab more victories this year. Part of that comes with bringing back the norms of past teams at Marist and the mentality they played with.
“This year I went in with a mindset of bringing the Marist culture and winning culture back that I got a glimpse of my freshman year,” said Cunningham. “I’m very close with my teammates, so I want to give them a boost, take steps with them in the right direction and see them take those steps for years to come.”
The Red Foxes will open up with a nine-game non-conference slate before opening up MAAC play. They’ll start their quest for a bounce back season tomorrow against Drexel at 7 p.m. before their first home opener against Cornell on Sunday at 2 p.m.
“We obviously have a lot of work to do but we don’t start MAAC play for a little bit,” said Doughty. “Last year’s record is what it is and we’re not hiding from that, but I think there were also 15 games decided by single digits and 5 overtime games which is just a play here or there, so we’ve just been working more on those game deciding possessions.”
All things considered, a feisty defense and an all-hands-on-deck type of offense is what Doughty visualizes for the Red Foxes this season. If that proves to be true, Marist could catch some teams off-guard for the 2024-25 season.
Edited by Dan Aulbach
Graphic by Raegan van Zandt
For more coverage of Marist athletics, follow @cfmarist on Instagram, X and TikTok, and sign up to receive daily alerts here.