January 8, 2007 - Marist 84 Rider 59
January 8, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Women’s College Basketball
Marist College 84, Rider University 59
LAWRENCEVILLE—Despite a career-high 23 points and six rebounds by junior Kelli Sawyer (Philadelphia, PA/Friends Select), the Broncs lost a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference game to first-place Marist Monday. “Marist is a good team,” said head coach Tori Harrison. “We were playing without a lot of players who were hurt but we were able to do some good things as well.”
“Kelli [Sawyer] stepped up,” Harrison said. “She did what ever she could to keep us in the game and give us a chance to win. That’s the kind of attitude that we’ve been looking for and that we are going to have to have over the next two months.”
“Marist is a very good team,” said Sawyer. “I just wanted to do whatever I could to help. We were sluggish in the first half and in the second half, I just wanted to pick up play and give us a chance to be in the game.”
Sawyer scored her first seven points in the last four minutes of the first half, as Rider went on a 9-6 run and added 16 points in the second half.
With the score tied at 12-12, Marist (11-4, 4-0 MAAC), the defending MAAC Champion, went on a 16-2 run, eight points by sophomore guard Julianne Viani, to take a 28-14 lead with 4:30 left in the first half, and Marist led 38-25 at half time. Viani finished with 15 points and six assists.
Rider (1-14, 0-4 MAAC) jumped out to an 8-5 lead, five points by freshman Amanda Sepulveda’s (Perth Amboy/Hun). Sepulveda finished with seven points.
Marist out-scored Rider 10-3 to start the second half, taking a 48-28 lead with 16:45 left to play. Holding a 58-39 lead, Marist went on a 12-0 run to take a 70-39 lead with 6:26 remaining.
Rider sophomore Danielle Costantino (Norristown, PA/Archbishop Carroll) added eight points in her first start of the season with senior Monica Welborn (Harrisburg, Pa./Central Dauphin) adding a career-high five assists.
“I just try to bring whatever energy I can,” said Sawyer. “Both on offense and defense, I want my effort to trickle down and help my teammates play better.”
The Red Foxes out-scored Rider 48-28 in the paint, and had 26 assists on 36 made baskets.
“Marist is 6’4” and 6’3” inside,” Harrison said. “We only lost the battle on the boards by five and we’ve been getting beat by 17. The final was deceiving. Our defense was better tonight than the last few games but obviously it still needs to improve. We’ve been getting killed on the boards and tonight we gave a much better effort and that’s a positive that we need to build on going up to Buffalo. Marist does a good job passing the ball and they aren’t the number one team in the MAAC for nothing. We just have to get better pressure on the ball.”
Senior Kara Borel (East Stroudsburg, PA/Stroudsburg) added seven points and four rebounds for the Broncs.
Marist freshman Rachele Fitz, the MAAC Rookie of the Week last week, added 15 points, nine in the second half, and seven rebounds.
The Broncs only had nine players dressed. Among the wounded was Rider’s leading scorer, junior Janele Henderson (Brooklyn, NY/Bishop Loughlin), who was sidelined with a foot injury.
“It was hard having a limited roster,” Sawyer added. “We need to get healthy so we can try to win some of these games.”
Rider travels to Western New York to take on Niagara Friday and Canisius Sunday in a pair of MAAC games. “We’ve struggled but we’ve had some recent success against Niagara and I hope we remember that when we take the floor against the Purple Eagles said Harrison.”
-RU-
