Marist women’s basketball persevered past the 7-2 Bryant Bulldogs despite their comeback from a 14-point deficit in the first half.
Junior center Morgan Lee led the way for Marist with 21 points and seven rebounds, making all three of her 3-point attempts. Sophomore guard Mia Mancini finished as the top scorer in the game with 22 points and five 3-pointers, playing a huge part in Bryant’s initial resurgence.
Bryant finished with 23 team turnovers with Mancini contributing to six of them, while the Red Foxes had just 12 giveaways and shot at 45 percent from beyond the arc in the victory.
Lee jump started Marist’s offense with a wide-open 3-pointer in the first quarter. Freshman guard Danielle Williamsen knocked down a mid-range pull-up jumper and junior guard Jackie Piddock ripped down an offensive rebound for an easy layup to cap off the early 9-0 run.
Lee continued to cook early on with a fadeaway jumper in the paint to give her seven points in the first five minutes of the game. Redshirt junior Lexie Tarul also got her night going, drilling a shot from beyond the arc to give the Red Foxes a 10-point lead.
Graduate student guard Mimi Rubino and Mancini buried back-to-back 3-pointers to cut into the early deficit, but Williamsen connected on a 3-point ball with 21 seconds to go to give the Red Foxes a 21-13 lead after the first quarter. Bryant turned the ball over eight times which the Red Foxes used for 10 points in the opening frame.
Marist continued to shoot at a high clip early in the second quarter as Tarul knocked down a long two-point shot while Lee drained her second 3-pointer of the game.
Lee then delivered her third triple of the game midway through the quarter to stretch the Marist lead to 14. Lee’s hot hand continued to propel the Red Foxes forward on offense, as she finished with 13 first-half points.
Mancini came alive for Bryant with a 3-pointer late in the quarter and a floater to make it 30-22 with just under a minute to go in the half.
Sophomore guard Malea Egan missed a jump shot with three seconds to go in the quarter and then committed a foul on Mancini before the buzzer. Mancini received the inbound pass and heaved up a shot from beyond halfcourt which found the bottom of the net to cut the lead to five going into halftime. Mancini delivered three 3-pointers and 14 points to lead all scorers in the first half.
The Red Foxes struggled to get into a flow on offense to open up the second half, as the Bulldogs forced two shot-clock violations in the opening three minutes of the third quarter. Sophomore forward Nia Scott delivered six points in this span for the Bulldogs to make it a one-point game.
Lee looked to weather the storm with a layup, but Mancini answered right back with her fourth 3-pointer of the game to tie it at 36 a piece.
Tarul wasted no time with a response, nailing her second 3-pointer of the game on the ensuing possession.
Lee grabbed an offensive rebound later in the quarter and looked to reset it to give the Red Foxes an extra possession, but accidentally passed it off the head of sophomore guard Julia Corsentino. That pass eventually led to a wide-open fastbreak layup for sophomore guard Martina Boba who gave the Bulldogs their first lead since it was 2-0.
Tarul would once again answer, this time with a two-point jump shot, but Mancini knocked down a stepback triple to give Bryant a 44-41 lead and force head coach Erin Daughty to call a timeout.
Lee would turn it over after the timeout for her sixth of the game and the Bulldogs eventually made the Red Foxes pay, as sophomore forward Silvia Gonzalez hit a corner 3-pointer for her first points of the game.
Piddock gave the Red Foxes a much-needed 3-pointer with 17 seconds to go. Williamsen quickly stole the ball in the Bryant backcourt right after, eventually sending graduate student forward Brooke Jarvis to the free-throw line where she split a pair to make it 47-45 Bryant after three quarters.
Junior forward Ciara Croker snatched one of her four steals in the game early in the fourth quarter, setting up a wide-open layup for Williamsen. Lee then found Tarul under the basket for another layup on the next Red Fox possession, cutting the lead to one and forcing head coach Lynne-Ann Kokoski to call a timeout.
The Red Foxes continued to control the momentum after the timeout as Tarul drained a 3-pointer from the corner to put Marist back in front. Piddock then picked up her third steal of the game, leading to a Lee layup with some nice ball movement on the fastbreak by the Red Foxes.
Mancini finished a layup to cut it to two, but Lee cashed in on a turnaround jumper to make it 56-52 Marist with 2:58 remaining.
Scott and Mancini could not answer on the next two possessions for the Bulldogs and Williamsen made them pay with a triple to give Marist a seven-point lead with 1:58 to play, sealing the deal for the Red Foxes
Marist, now 5-4, will take 10 days off before its next matchup at Holy Cross on Tuesday, Dec. 17, at 10:30 a.m.
Edited by Dan Aulbach
Photo by Kira Crutcher
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