POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. – The Purple Eagles women's basketball team was defeated by Marist, 63-50, on Saturday night.

Head coach Jada Pierce hoped to make a triumphant return to Marist, where she was previously an assistant coach from 2006-07, the season that Marist became the first ever MAAC team to make it to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament. Pierce received a warm greeting from the Red Foxes' coaching staff and fans.

"It was a little bit emotional to be back," Pierce said. "But, it felt good to be back at a place where I had a lot of friends and people that I consider to be family."

Sam Lapszynski led Niagara in scoring with 17 points. Kaylee Stroemple narrowly missed a double-double with 12 points and a team-high nine rebounds. Tiffany Corselli added eight points and eight rebounds for Niagara and freshman Kharysma Bryant, who made her third career start, also added eight points and six rebounds.

"I thought the team fought really hard tonight and gave everything they had," said Pierce. "Tiffany did a great job running the point tonight, keeping the team organized and composed, especially in the second half where I felt we played a lot better."

In the first quarter, the Red Foxes held the Purple Eagles (6-13, 4-5 MAAC) to only eight points with half of those points came from Stroemple. At the end of the fist, Marist was ahead of Niagara, 16-8.

The Purple Eagles looked to erase the deficit in the second quarter, but Marist (8-11, 7-2 MAAC) began to pull away further. Going into halftime, the Red Foxes led 31-19. Lapszynski had eight of the Purple Eagles' 11 second quarter points.

Corselli made two major baskets to open the third quarter, cutting the Red Foxes' lead to 33-25. With a little less than eight minutes to play in the third, Stroemple scored, was fouled and converted the three-point play to put the Purple Eagles down by only seven points, 35-28. Marist, however, was able to pull away from the Purple Eagles' once again and the Red Foxes led 48-34 at the end of the third quarter.

With a little less than eight minutes to play in the fourth quarter, Emily Granruth hit a 3-point shot to cut the Red Foxes' lead to eight points, 48-40. With 31 seconds left, Corselli scored another two points for the Purple Eagles.

Niagara hosts Big 4 rival Canisius on Thursday, Jan. 28 at 7:00 pm in the Gallagher Center. The game will be broadcast locally on Lockport Community Television.

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