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Liz Flooks
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POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. – The Niagara women’s basketball team could not maintain a strong first half start as its upset bid of the four-time defending MAAC Tournament champion Marist Red Foxes fell short in a 73-56 defeat on Tuesday night from the McCann Center.
“We played a great first half with Liz Flooks scoring a ton,” head coach Kendra Faustin said. “Our post players did a great job defensively and overall defensively we looked really good at times. (Marist) switched some things in the second half and we struggled to score in the second half, but the effort was there.”
Niagara (3-10, 0-2 MAAC) could not have asked for a better start. The Purple Eagles exploded on a 17-1 run to take a 24-13 lead with 9:51 left in the first half. Liz Flooks (White Plains, N.Y.) scored 15 of her 17 first half points during the run. Flooks, who entered the game seventh in the nation in 3-point percentage, drained three 3-pointers.
Marist (10-4, 2-0 MAAC) ended the half on a run 21-5 run to regain the lead at 34-29. The Red Foxes kept up the their hot start to end the half by scoring the first six points in the second half and eventually crawled their way to their largest lead at 61-39 with eight minutes remaining.
NU went cold from the field in the second half, especially from behind the 3-point line. The Purple Eagles were 4-for-19 in the game with all four made by Flooks. Niagara was efficient in its low-post game, scoring 22 points in the paint.
Flooks finished with a game-high 24 points and shot 50 percent (4-for-8) from behind the arc. NU held two-time MAAC Player of the Year Rachele Fitz to 10 points, nine fewer than her average.
Niagara returns home for the first time in 2010 to play the Manhattan Jaspers on Saturday, Jan. 9 at 2 p.m.
