With 12 seconds to play and holding a two-point advantage, the Dukes still looked to be on their back foot.
Seconds earlier, sophomore forward Justine Henry pulled down an offensive rebound on a missed free-throw and muscled it back up for an emphatic and-one. Henry, shooting 93 percent from the charity stripe this season, calmly converted the 3-point play.
Duquesne promptly called their final timeout to draw up its out-of-bounds play. The Dukes passed it to their hot hand — redshirt sophomore guard Nadia Moore, with 30 points — and she bobbled the ball through traffic en route to an and-one of her own.
Marist head coach Erin Doughty was bewildered, making her case to the officials that Moore traveled on her way to the cup. No review was given, and Moore made her free throw to give her 33 points and a five-point lead.
With only seven seconds to play, that effectively sealed the game. On Marist’s final possession, redshirt junior guard Gabby Grantham-Medley swooped into the passing lane to pick off a desperation pass, and the Dukes walked off with a 72-67 victory.
Doughty and her unit are 0-4 for the first time in her four years. Over the past three games, the challenge has been converting down the stretch — their combined margin of defeat in that span is just 11 points.
Moore entered as the second-leading scorer for the Dukes at 12.5 points per game; her 33-point explosion was a career-high mark against the Red Foxes.
The Dukes’ offense found success without their star player making much of an impact. Senior guard Carla Viegas averaged 25.5 points through her first two contests, but managed just five tonight on 2-of-11 shooting.
Freshman guard Madison Ohm saw the majority of that assignment tonight for the Red Foxes, and she played principled defense with high energy all evening, snagging a career-high eight boards. Doughty praised Ohm’s perimeter defense heading into the season, and Ohm proved why she’s started every game thus far.
Once again, Henry was the strongest part of the Marist offense. Her team-high 19 points marked her third-straight game with 18 points or more and her second-straight double-double. At just 6-of-18 from the floor, her efficiency is nothing to marvel at, but her consistency both drawing fouls and converting her free throws continues to give her a high floor of scoring output.
After a narrow loss against NJIT, Doughty expressed that the offense was not taking enough good looks from three, impacting both Marist’s scoring volume and ball movement.
Against the Dukes on Wednesday night, it appears she’s made the proper adjustments. Marist set season highs in 3-pointers attempted (28), 3-pointers made (11), assists (18), and total points (67), but her offense piled up 20 total turnovers.
The Dukes led for 31 minutes, several moments in double-digits, but the Red Foxes refused to bow out. The third quarter, which has been disastrous for Marist this season, did not drown them; they stayed even-keeled after an 0-for-5 start, and entered the fourth trailing by six.
Junior guard Chloe Escanillas laced a deep three to knot the game at 58 with five minutes to play. The sharpshooter finished 4-of-6, all of her field goals from beyond the arc, for her second game with three or more 3-pointers.
Unbothered by her slow start, Viegas drilled a catch-and-shoot three in the face of Ohm to propel a quick 5-0 Duquesne run.
From there, the Dukes managed to stay afloat in the face of another fierce comeback from the Red Foxes. For three-straight outings, Marist has controlled the fate of the game late in the fourth, but still have nothing to show for it in the win column.
The Red Foxes are back at home this Sunday, squaring off against Lafayette. Tip is set for 2 p.m.
Edited by Max Rosen
Graphic by Xavier Angel
Photo from Marist Athletics
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