Pack the House

Current Status: (17-2, 7-0 MAAC)
National Rank : 29th in ESPN/USA Today's Coaches Poll
Last Game: Defeated Canisius 93-66

This Friday Marist will look to improve to 8-0 in the MAAC and 18-2 overall as they host Siena at 7:30 in McCann. The theme of Friday night's game, "Pack the House." Marist along with the rest of the NCAA is trying this new campaign to try and get more student fans to attend women's sporting events. This Friday's game is Marist's day to pack the house as the MAAC was one of the first conferences to commit to the idea. The idea is simple, one team from each of the 31 conferences and then one independent team will be selected as the winner. However the best attendance does not gaurantee that your school "packed the house" the best. The results will be based on creative marketing strategies but also the biggest increase from the previous years single game attendance record. Right now that stands at 2,229 which was set last year against Canisius on February 9th.

Marist's student section or "The Marist Sixth Man" is capable of holding its fair share of students. Located behind the far basket, the section holds an impressive 680 fans and really provides a home-court advantage for the Red Foxes. At the game the first 1,000 fans will receive a commemorative Sweet 16 t-shirt courtesy of Verizon Wireless. The Red Foxes have been dominate so far this season and this is a great chance to come out and watch them play. It should be a good game and the house should be rocking and obviously packed. The game again is the Friday, January 25th at 7:30pm.

Another Streak

Today at 4pm at the McCann Center the Lady Red Foxes will host Canisius for their seventh in-conference game. Marist is now in the part of their schedule where they are only playing conference opponents the rest of the way. Going into this Martin Luther King Jr. Day game Marist is currently undefeated in the MAAC winning all six of their games. This doesn't come as much of surprise for most people I would think as this team we know was picked to win the MAAC. But my feeling is it doesn't matter what people expect you to do, if you go out and do impressive things, your playing extremely well. Its like the New England Patriots. A few weeks into this past NFL season the Pats were undefeated and the talk of a perfect season started up. Weeks later when they finished 16-0, people didn't make less of their NFL record because it was expected, they still had to go out and do it, and for that it was incredibly impressive (for the record I am not a Pats fan at all). That in a way is the same for this Marist squad. They are expected to win the MAAC and also predicted by many to go undefeated in the MAAC. If this holds true they would be 18-0 in the MAAC and 28-2 overall. I bet those of you who thought they would go undefeated in the MAAC didn't think their record would have to look something like that. So there is my point, sure Brian Giorgis' can do what many expect, but still it is unbelievably impressive.

Since their loss on December 12th to Hartford, Marist has done all they could to prove that their first home loss in 26 games was no fluke. Since the loss they have rattled off six straight wins with all but one of those wins coming on the road. Standing tall at first place in the MAAC with a 6-0 record, they still have to continue winning in the conference. As they look in their rear view mirror, Manhattan is only one game behind them with a 5-1 in-conference record. It may take close to perfection to make sure they finish at the top of the conference, but let the challenge be out on the table. As I said in one of my first blogs, their is no limit to what this team can accomplish this year. Hopefully I will see you all at McCann for todays game.

Winning in all fashions

In Marist's 14 wins this season we've seen them blow teams out, hold onto leads late and now come from behind with less than 30 seconds to go. For the first time all year, the Red Foxes were trailing in a game with less than a minute to go an actually still managed to capture a win. Last night they trailed by 3 (59-56) and had the ball needing a big bucket. They turned to red-shirt junior Julianne Viani for just that as she burried a three with 29 seconds remianing. Marist then got a big stop to keep the game tied and with 3.7 seconds left, who else other than Rachele Fitz drew a foul an knocked down both free-throws to give Marist a 61-59 lead and eventual win over Loyola . In my last post I stated how Meg Dahlman recorded her 500th rebound of her career and in last night's game Dahlman reached another collegiate milestone recording her 1,000 career point.
This is such a nice win for the Foxes in terms of what they had to do and overcome to pull out a win. They showed me a lot being able to win a game in which they trailed in the closing moments. It just shows how well rounded this squad really is. They're only wins aren't in games where they dominate and blow teams out. In a game where we saw 8 ties and 14 lead changes, Marist was able to rally very late and stay composed to come back and win. We haven't seen them record a win yet quite like this one. Trust me it means a lot for a team to win like this because they now know that they are never out of any game.
With the win Marist improved to 14-2 on the season and 4-0 in the MAAC.

Freshman Allenspach Shines

Happy New Year Everyone! Hope everyone has a healthy and happy 2008. Lets get to the basketball though.

Marist's last game was against Akron. Again we saw a high scoring affair with Marist winning by double digits, defeating Akron 76-62. There were quite a few high points to take from this game besides the Red Foxes picking up their 12th win to improve to 12-2. Meg Dahlman recorded a double double with 16 points and 13 rebounds and in doing so surpassed the 500 rebound mark. Dalhman was also one of ten Marist players to score in this game. This just highlights the point I have talked about all season: the fact that on any given night, Marist has ten players that can scorch you on the offensive end.

I think the greatest story of the game was the true freshman Erica Allenspach who had a career night. Allenspach finished the game with 18 points connecting on 5-5 from three-point range. In one of my very first posts of the season I stated how well this girl can shoot. This is a prime example and you hope this now gives her the confidence to shoot the rock for the from here on in. Hopefully she can establish herself as Giorgi's three point shooting weapon off the bench. And I know this was no fluke either. Though she had a great game against Akron, dont think we cant see that again. If she gets the looks she will burry a lot more long range jumpers in her Marist career. But dont think that is all she can do. With this beautiful jump shot comes great intensity on the defensive end and also a strong ability to get to the basket. Let us remember that she is only a freshman and is still getting confortable at the college level. It appears she has a great basketball I.Q. and is definitely a player Giorgis wants seeing ample minutes.

I am actually leaving for vacation tomorrow morning and will be out of the country for a little over a week. It is unlikely I will get to a computer so this will be my last blog for a little over a week. Fortunately the Red Foxes only play one game while I am gone, they host Fairfield who they have already beaten this season. That game is schedule for January 5th at McCann.