Now their season is over, the Marist Red Foxes women’s basketball team can take stock of a spectacular run.
It was a 32-3 campaign, which saw Marist crack the national rankings, go undefeated in conference play and was capped by a return to the NCAA tournament; advancing to the second round before falling to LSU on Monday night in Baton Rouge.
“I think it says that we’re a legitimate mid-major power in the country. It helps with our name recognition and it helps with recruiting. We’ve gained a lot of fans and gained respect from our opponents,” said Marist Coach Brian Giorgis.
It was the Red Foxes’ third straight trip to the postseason tournament, and they proved that last year’s run to the Sweet Sixteen was not a fluke. This time around Marist was given a seventh seed in the Oklahoma City regional.
A stirring comeback
In the first round at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center on March 22, the Red Foxes were matched against the 10th seeded DePaul Blue Demons. In a measure of how far the program has developed, Marist was seeded higher than a Big East team that earlier in the season had lost to the top team in the nation, Connecticut, by just a single point.
Marist opened the scoring when senior guard Nikki Flores sliced through the lane for a lay-up. Back-to-back baskets by DePaul’s Natasha Williams and Deirdre Norton put the Blue Demons on top once again.
The Marist offense looked sluggish for much of the first half, but neither team could stake out a definitive edge. Marist forward Rachele Fitz did her part, scoring 11 points in the first half.
On one trip down the floor, Fitz worked a pick-and-roll with Flores and was fouled, converting the free throw for a three-point play. Fitz displayed her full offensive repertoire, sinking turnarounds and short jumpers throughout the half.
On the other end, DePaul’s Allie Quigley was instant offense, running off screens to hit back-to-back three pointers to give her team a 26-22 lead. The half ended when DePaul’s Norton connected from long range to put the Blue Demons up 37-31 at the half.
Marist came out strong in the second half with a three-on-two fast break resulting in Fitz lay-up, but DePaul went on a 9-2 run that threatened to leave the Red Foxes out in the cold. Erin Carey hit a three-pointer, followed by back-back hoops for Quigley. Marist seemed rattled, committing a shot clock violation on the next possession.
Rather than go away, though, the Red Foxes made a sudden and dramatic run that improbably put the game away. Senior Sarah Smrdel hit a three-pointer, following two free throws by Fitz. Then came an onslaught of three straight treys by Poughkeepsie native Julianne Viani to give Marist the lead for good. A reverse lay-up by Fitz and a put-back by freshman Erica Allenspach capped the scoring.
The Red Foxes finished the contest on an astonishing 32-2 run, catapulting them into the second round. Giorgis said the crisp passing and constant motion on offense took its toll on DePaul.
“The key was that we started making some shots after making them play defense. Julianne hit some threes, Sarah Smrdel hit a big three and Rachele hit a tough shot. On defense, Elyce Caron, Rachele and Meg Dahlman were helping out on the perimeter shooters by hedging out hard and forcing them to take tough shots,” he said.
Viani ended up with 18 points, while Fitz poured in 23 for Marist in the 76-57 victory.
A tall order
In the second round awaited an even tougher foe: second seeded Louisiana State and its All-America center Sylvia Fowles. The Tigers have reached the Final Four each of the past four seasons and played the game on their home court.
The Tigers started out strong with baskets by Fowles and Ashley Thomas. Marist responded with hoops by Viani and Smrdel, before LSU’s Khalilah Mitchell hit a three-pointer.
Fowles had 10 more points before the Red Foxes came out with a triangle-and-two defense to slow the LSU star. Marist was down by 10, when the Red Foxes started a comeback. Fitz had three straight baskets to cut the deficit to 27-19. Viani had two three-pointers, one from NBA range, before Fitz took the ball to the basket to cut the LSU lead to 29-27. Marist had a chance to tie right before the half, but missed two lay-ups with a chance to tie right before the half.
In the second half, the teams traded baskets, with Dahlman hitting a shot with 16:40 left in the half that left Marist down by 36-34. With Fowles being hounded by the Marist defense, guard Erica White stepped up in a big way.
Not known as a three-point shooter, White hit two from long range and scored all of her 15 points to spearhead a run that put Marist away for good. Fowles had 19 point and 13 rebounds for LSU.
“Our whole game plan was to stop Fowles and (Quianna) Chaney and let the other people shoot. White was in foul trouble in the first half. The interesting thing was that she had only made eight threes all season,” said Giorgis.
Marist should have another strong team next year with the return of Fitz, Viani and a slew of young contributors from this year’s squad. Seniors Flores, Dahlman and Smrdel have helped set a standard for the Marist program over the past four years.
“I think 102 wins (over four seasons) speaks for itself. They’ve been a tremendous cornerstone of this program and they will be sorely missed,” said Giorgis.