Marion, Ind. – The No. 7 Marian women's basketball continued their hot start by winning their fifth straight on Friday night, running past Reinhardt 68-45 in the first game of the IWU Leah Whittaker Memorial Tournament.
In only their second ever meeting, the two teams matched up evenly through the first four minutes of play with the score tied at 7-7, before Reinhardt found themselves ahead two after knocking down a pair of freebies. However, Olivia Faust and Kenna Kirby teamed up to score Marian's last 11 of 14 points in the quarter to take the 21-14 lead.
After a bit of a sluggish start to the game, the Knights put together a 12-0 run as Aliyah Evans gave Marian the momentum to start as she got the defensive rebound before knocking down the layup and jumper to advance their lead to 11. It was Kirby and Faust each hitting a three before Reinhardt would end the run by hitting free throws. Evans would do it again by knocking down the layup off the assist from Abbey McNally, and Tamia Perryman cashing in the free throw to give Marian the 20 point lead. The Eagles were the last to strike in the quarter as they hit a layup with 1:59 left to cut the lead back to 18, but Marian ended the half outscoring Reinhardt 15-4 and would go into halftime with 36-18 lead.
The third quarter was much of the same for the Knights as they continued to add onto their lead. Kirby hit a jumper and Sara Majorosova canned a pair of free throws, before Allison Bosse knocked down the free throw to extend Marian's lead to 21 for the first time in the game. The Eagles did not go away though as they managed a 7-2 run, but it was Faust cashing in her fourth triple of the night to end the small surge by Reinhardt. The remainder of the quarter was pretty much all Marian as they scored the last six of the eight points to go into the final period of play up 54-33.
Reinhardt continued to battle in the final quarter of play, with the Knights getting their bench involved in the final minutes of action. The Eagles got the first bucket of the quarter, but it was Majorosova and Alexa McKinley each hitting a shot. Kiley McNally gave the Knights a spark after coming up with two steals and two made layups, before Kenna Gray swished a three with 35 seconds left in the game to end the game on a high note and push Marian to the 68-45 victory.
Faust led all players with a season-high 19 points to go along with four steals, while Kirby had 14 points and four rebounds. Evans and Majorosova each had eight points, Bosse added six points and a team-high four assists, while Abbey McNally pulled down a team best five rebounds.
Marian will finish the second game of the IWU Leah Whittaker Memorial Tournament tomorrow afternoon with a 4 PM game against No. 4 Carroll.
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