Richmond, Ind. – The No. 6 Marian women's basketball team secured their seventh straight win and 12th overall of the season, as the Knights downed IU East 68-65 on Lingle Court on Saturday afternoon. The non-conference win gives Marian a 12-1 record as they enter the Christmas season.
Both sides opened the game evenly with the score at 8-8 through the opening four and a half minutes. Neither team could score until 2:05 was remaining in the first quarter after IUE was able to knock down a free throw. A bucket by Ella Collier sparked a 6-2 run for the Knights that gave them the 14-11 advantage after the first quarter of play even with the slow start for Marian.
Marian held the three-point lead at the start of quarter two, but it was the Red Wolves holding the momentum to start as they jumped out to a 9-1 run to take the 20-15 lead with 7:07 left to play in the first half. Abbey McNally ended the run made by the IUE as she hit a layup before Tamia Perryman stepped to the line and canned both freebies to put her team within one at 20-19. The hosts responded with a jumper, but once again it was McNally coming back down in the post with a layup. Trailing by one, Marian got a spark from Aliyah Evans after she took her defender one-on-one to hit the layup, giving the Knights the 23-22 lead.
After swapping the lead three times in the final two minutes of play in the first half, Evans gave her team more momentum after an old fashion three-point play to tie it up at 28-28. The Red Wolves outscored Marian 17-14 in the second quarter, but McNally's 12 points and nine rebounds in the half helped the Knights stay in it.
The second half began with the two teams going back and forth in the first three minutes of action before IU East's Kennedy Griffin ignited a seven-point lead after canning the layup and three-pointer, forcing a timeout to be called by Marian. After the timeout, Collier stepped up and swished one in from deep to cut the deficit back to four at 41-37. Collier and Allison Bosse worked together as the duo helped fuel a 14-3 run behind two big Bosse triples and a jumper by Collier at the buzzer to close out the third quarter with an eight-point lead at 53-45.
Bosse got things going for Marian in the final quarter of play as she hit the layup 13 seconds in before Collier added a basket to give Marian their largest lead of the game at 57-45. The energy seemed to be on Marian's side, but the Red Wolves were not backing down. The hosts began chipping away at their deficit to whittle it to five, 61-56 with 2:27 left in the game. The Knights looked like they were handling the threat from IUE as Collier and McNally each scored to put the Marian lead back up to six, 65-59 with a 1:26 left to go, but Tia Tolbert nailed a jumper before moments later the Red Wolves got three points from three throws to make it a one-point game at 65-64 with 14 seconds remaining.
The Knights were able to set up a play and get a layup from McNally with seven seconds left to have the 67-64 advantage. However, a foul by Marian sent Griffin to the line as she went one for two. Holding the 67-65 lead with almost all time expired on the clock, the Red Wolves fouled Jayla Wehner in hopes for a chance at a last second shot after the free throws. Wehner missed the first but managed to hit the second free throw, but IUE was unable to produce any sort of good look as there was not enough time, and the Knights would hold off to win 68-65.
Collier had a game-high 24 points and dished out three assists, while McNally had her second double-double of the season with a season-high 22 points and 13 rebounds. Bosse tossed in 10 points, while Evans added five points and five rebounds.
Marian has a small break until after Christmas when they travel to Babson Park, Florida for a pair of games. The Knights will play their first game on December 30 against Keiser University.
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