The Circle

   Head coach Brian Giorgis knew his top-seeded Red Foxes would be in a dog-fight against the eighth-seed Canisius, but all that mattered was that the Red Foxes won. 

   After falling behind 26-24 at halftime, Marist took the game over right from the start of the second half to win 54-44 and advance to the semi-finals of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) tournament.

   Giorgis said most people expected a blowout because of the 45-point Marist win the last time these two teams met on Feb. 10. 

   “I know you guys didn’t expect this, but I really did,” Giorgis said.  “There was no way that Canisius was going to allow us to beat them by 30 or 45.  I give [Canisius Head Coach] Terry [Zeh] a lot of credit.  He had his kids ready to play.”

   Marist, which extended its record to 29-2 on the season, has seldom had to overcome adversity.  In fact, the Foxes only trailed at halftime three times this year.  Yet somehow, they were able to regroup in the second half. 

   “I’m extremely pleased with our kids,” Giorgis said. “You know, we haven’t been down at the half many times, and the energy and the positive attitude in the locker room was great.  They were ready to come out.”

   A big reason Marist found itself down at the half, according to Giorgis, was that the Foxes were not hitting shots.  In the last meeting, Marist uncharacteristically took 34 three-point shots, and made a school-record 16, because Canisius tried to take away Rachele Fitz and left shooters open.  Canisius used the same strategy this time, but the Foxes shot three for 20 from the three-point line so they had to improvise on offense.

   “We happened to hit a ton of shots that day,” Giorgis said.  “When you watch tape, there wasn’t anybody that was gonna beat us that day, the way we were hitting threes.   Today, yes, some of those threes were there, but we didn’t hit ’em.  The thing that we had to do was find other ways to score, because the three ball wasn’t going down.”

   Normally if Marist’s outside shooters are cold, the guards pass to Fitz in the post; however, Fitz found herself in early foul trouble and played just eight minutes in the first half.  Canisius center Laura Buetow frustrated Fitz on both ends of the floor in the first half.

   “It’s just not a good thing to be in [foul trouble].  I can’t help my team, and I’m not doing what I’m supposed to be doing,” Fitz said.

   Fitz was not the only one frustrated by the Golden Griffs’ defense.  Canisius held Marist to approximately 18 points below its average (72.1 ppg). 

   The Griffs accomplished this by not allowing Marist to get into its “cadence,” according to Zeh.

   “[Marist] wants to play at their cadence,” Zeh said.  “They have a very methodical cadence, and if you allow them to play at that cadence, they’re difficult.  But if you get pressure on them, at their hands, arrive at the catch, it makes it tough for them.  And I thought, today, we got them out of it a little bit with some pressure.”

   Though Marist was not able to find this cadence, it did get contributions from various players.  Senior Sarah Smrdel, for instance, kept the Foxes in the game early with two big threes.

   “She’s been able to hit big-time threes for us, and help keep us in [the game],” Giorgis said.  “We were struggling offensively, and they were giving us all we could handle.  And Smrdy came in and gave us a couple threes to kind of jump-start the offense.”

   Senior Nikki Flores also made significant contributions, scoring six of her 13 points from the free-throw line, and also adding six assists.  She said her mind was at ease because of fellow guard Julianne Viani’s return.

   “It was a sigh of relief,” Flores said.  “I’ve been playing with Jules for three years now, and when she was out, it was a little troubling, but we knew we had girls that could step up.  Just to have her there, it’s better.”

   Viani sat out the last two regular season games due to sickness, but was cleared to play for the tournament.  She scored six points on three of seven shooting, and added three assists. 

   The familiarity the players have with each other as well as the experience the team has should be beneficial as the Foxes advance in the tournament.  Marist is not only cool and composed, but determined because it knows what it is capable of.  Senior Meg Dahlman is especially aware of that, and she reminded her teammates at halftime of today’s game.

   “I told the girls when we were coming out for the second half, this will not be our last game together, and everybody stepped up,” Dahlman said.

   Giorgis continued to insist that winning the MAAC championship is not going to be easy, and he’d have it no other way.

   “The trophy is not in our locker room.  There’s nobody that’s planning on just handing it to us.  That’s the way I know I’d like to win it, is by taking people’s best shots, and that’s what it’s been lately.”

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