The Marist College Red Foxes girls basketball team has been winning all season – proven both by the team’s 25-2 overall record and its most recent wins against Niagara University, 66-51 on Feb. 15, and at Rider University, 76-46 on Feb. 17.
The team also clinched its fifth straight MAAC title in the in over Niagara, in the same game in which sophomore Rachele Fitz scored her 1,000th point, becoming the fastest player in school history to do so.
And in the newest ESPN/USA Today coaches’ poll, released on Tuesday, Marist is ranked No. 23, moving up two spots from last week.
Following the Niagara victory, Marist head coach Brian Giorgis reiterated his mantra for the team – if it’s not happening on offense, focus on defense. Marist limited Niagara to just under 30 percent shooting (19-of-65) for the game.
“We’re going to keep taking everybody’s best shot,” he said. “We’ve got to just keep coming, plugging away and making sure that we stick to what we’re doing. If it’s not going well offensively, we need to tighten the defensive performance like we did today.”
The Red Foxes shot 46 percent from the floor, but Giorgis said three-point shooting needed to improve, and for one of the first times all year, free-throw shooting was a liability as well, as the Red Foxes went 18-of-29 from the foul line.
Marist sophomore Lynzee Johnson scored 9 points against Niagara all on three-pointers, which were a shot in the arm for her team.
“My team has confidence in me, but any given day it can be anyone,” she said. The only other Red Fox to sink a three-pointer against Niagara was senior Nikki Flores.
Leading scorers against Niagara were sophomore Rachele Fitz and Flores, who each scored 20 points.
Fitz, who leads the team in scoring and rebounding this year, credits much of her success to her teammates.
“I owe a lot of it to them,” she said.
Giorgis has been stressing the importance of taking the season one game at a time prior to the upcoming Metro Athletic Atlantic Conference (MAAC) tournament
“It means something, but we still have MAAC, we have to keep coming prepared, keep playing hard. There’s so much that’s been going on that no one has expected,” Fitz said.
“The MAAC tournament is a three-game shot,” Giorgis said.
Giorgis said that the Purple Eagles were able to disrupt the Marist offense on some possessions.
“Offensively, I don’t know what it is with them (Niagara), other than they really get after you and make sure to bump you on every three that you take; it was just one of those days,” he said. “They’re the most physical and aggressive team (in the conference), and I say that in a positive way.”
With Marist’s continued success, Giorgis said opponents are now looking at what they can do to break down the Red Foxes.
“I think the thing that’s been interesting is that people look at today’s game and they say ‘What’s wrong with you?’ Now it’s not that we win, it’s by how much do we win,” he said.
Giorgis also believes that his girls are up against a tough conference, one of the best he’s seen in his six years with the team.
In his time at Marist, Giorgis has won 120 games and led the Red Foxes to four MAAC regular season championships, three MAAC Tournament titles, and three NCAA Tournament berths. Last season, Giorgis brought Marist to a program-record 29 wins and an appearance in the NCAA Sweet Sixteen.
The girls’ next home game will be against Manhattan on Sunday, Feb. 24 at 2 p.m. at the James J. McCann Recreational Center.