Marist women’s basketball (14-12, 9-7 MAAC Conference) took care of business on the road against Niagara (1-23, 0-16 MAAC) with a 67-56 victory. The Red Foxes secured themselves a spot in the MAAC Championships with the win.
Freshman guard Danielle Williamsen boasted her best performance of the season, scoring 20 points on 9-for-13 shooting from the field. Junior guard Jackie Piddock managed the Red Foxes’ offense for the majority of the game, recording nine points and seven assists in the win.
With an injury-plagued roster, Niagara got off to a strong start, going 5-for-9 from the field to take a 10-7 lead at the midway point of the first quarter.
Marist looked to break Niagara’s full-court press and go for quick baskets, which initially caused them problems. The Purple Eagles flew all over the court on the defensive end, going for traps and flustering the Red Foxes to commit five first-quarter turnovers.
Meanwhile, Marist tightened up on the defensive end, while Niagara switched to careless offensive play. The Purple Eagles gave up nine giveaways in the opening quarter.
Niagara shot 50% from the field to the Red Foxes’ 28.6% in the first frame but limited themselves to just a 14-10 lead due to the giveaways. The Purple Eagles entered the contest averaging 24.9 turnovers on the season.
Williamsen and junior center Morgan Lee aimed to get the Red Foxes’ offense into a groove with a pair of layups. Piddock followed with her first 3-pointer of the game, sealing a 7-to-2 run to begin the second quarter and forcing Niagara to call a timeout.
Nothing changed for the Purple Eagles out of the timeout. The Red Foxes stuck with their game plan of turning defense into offense. Williamsen and Piddock each picked up a pair of steals which turned into layups off of lazy play from the Purple Eagles.
Sophomore guard Julia Corsentino then knocked down her first 3-pointer, while Williamsen delivered on a pull-up jumper for her 11th point of the game.
Sophomore guard Malea Egan added to the second-quarter push, sinking a floater and a 3-pointer on back-to-back possessions. Marist went 10-for-17 from the field in the second quarter and took a 33-23 lead into halftime.
The Red Foxes adjusted to Niagara’s press and defensive intensity by limiting themselves to just two giveaways in the quarter. The Purple Eagles added five more turnovers to their tally on the other hand, raising their total to 14 at the break.
Marist came out of the half doing more of the same, as Williamsen delivered a layup after redshirt junior Lexie Tarul and junior forward Ciara Croker trapped Niagara under the basket to force another turnover.
Piddock followed that up by knifing her way through the Purple Eagle defense for a layup, while Tarul drained her first 3-pointer to give the Red Foxes their largest lead of 13. In a lackadaisical effort, Niagara allowed Williamsen to run past on a sideline inbounds play, resulting in a layup and forced 10th-year head coach Jada Price to call another timeout.
The Purple Eagles reduced the turnovers out of the timeout and only ended with two in the third quarter. Marist held a lead as large as 18, but Niagara was able to trim this down to 13 at the end of the third period to keep the game within reach.
Niagara cut the Marist lead down to as few as nine at the start of the fourth quarter, but the lead never got smaller than that, much to the credit of Piddock and Williamsen. Piddock helped push the pace of play and continuously found her teammates open, including Williamsen who converted a pair of and-ones through contact.
Piddock sealed the victory for the Red Foxes with a driving layup and her seventh assist to senior guard Catie Cunningham just after, putting Marist back up 11 with under a minute to play.
Marist will look to extend its winning streak to three following the road trip sweep against Canisius and Niagara, returning home to face Sacred Heart on Thursday, Feb. 27, at 7 p.m.
Edited by Dan Aulbach
Graphic From Quinn DiFiore, Photo from Athletics
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