NIAGARA - The Marist women’s basketball team received a well-rounded team effort, defeating Niagara 71-51 on the road Sunday afternoon in a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) game.
Elizabeth Beynnon finished with a game-high 17 points, leading three players in double figures. Sydney Coffey had a career-high 16 points including going a perfect 9-9 from the free throw line. Emma O’Connor just missed her first career double-double, scoring 14 points and adding eight rebounds. Casey Dulin had eight points to go along with five assists and four steals. As a team, the Red Foxes were 23-24 (96%) from the free throw line and had 17 assists on 22 made field goals while only committing 10 turnovers. The defense had 10 steals and forced 18 Niagara turnovers.
The offense started slow for Marist (11-6, 6-0 MAAC), making just two of its first 15 shots and falling behind 7-4 over the game’s first 7:49. O’Connor eventually tied the score at 9 with a layups, but Niagara (8-9, 3-3 MAAC) reclaimed the lead right away with a three-pointer, 12-9 with 8:52 left.
From there however, Coffey went on a personal 9-2 run to give the Red Foxes their first lead of the game at 18-14 with 5:38 left in the first half. She hit a jumper then converted a three-point play with a layup and a free throw. Following a Purple Eagles’ bucket, she hit another four free throws in four attempts. Niagara scored the half’s final five points to close within 27-21 at halftime.
Marist opened the second half on a 16-4 run over the first five and a half minutes. From there, however, Niagara went on an 18-2 run over a 4:50 span to cut the Marist lead to just two points at 45-43 with 8:23 remaining.
Marist came out of a timeout with an 8-0 run, consisting of layups by Dulin, O’Connor and Beynnon sandwiched around two more Coffey free throws, to bring the lead back to 10 at 53-43 with 4:25 left on the clock.
The Purple Eagles would only get within seven points the rest of the way as Marist went 12-12 from the free throw line over the final 3:32, including a perfect 8-8 from Danella, to seal the victory.
