INDIANAPOLIS – The No. 6 Marian women's basketball team avenged their loss against Mt. Vernon Nazarene from last weekend by taking down the Cougars 75-59 on Saturday afternoon inside the PE Center. The Knights win improves them to 10-1 in Crossroads League play and 19-2 overall on the season.
Marian got on the board first with a bucket coming from Ella Collier before MVNU got five straight points to take the early 5-2 lead. The first quarter saw a lot of back-and-forth action as they two teams traded points all throughout. Abbey McNally came down as she hit one in the paint to put the Knights within one, but it was the Cougars answering back with the triple to up four with 6:35 to play in the period. Marian got back-to-back baskets from Collier and Allison Bosse to tie the game at 8-8. The guest put together a strong final five and half minutes to close quarter one ahead 16-15.
The Knights saw their first lead since the 4:24 mark in the first quarter after Bosse knocked down the jumper on the feed from Collier to start the second quarter. The Cougars retook their lead at 20-19 after getting a pair of free throws from Peyton Davis. The remainder of the quarter saw five lead changes, but it was Tamia Perryman hitting the pullup jumper at the 4:23 mark to spark an 11-2 run that saw Aliyah Evans swishing in a step back at the horn to end the first half with the 35-29 lead.
Marian continued to increase their lead in the third quarter as they got out to a 15-point lead after Evans knocked down back-to-back buckets and Collier canned the three-pointer. With 5:32 to go, the Cougars finally answered with a Maggie Coe jumper. However, the Knights hot shooting continued as they went on a 12-4 spurt that saw five different players score, increasing their lead to 22 points behind a Bosse three-pointer. MVNU hit a layup with 27 seconds left to cut the deficit to 62-42 going into the final quarter of play.
The Knights shot a blazing 66.7% from the field and 100% from three-point range in the third quarter to help garner their 20-point lead. The Marian offense was hitting on all cylinders, but the aggressive defense put together posed a problem for the visiting Cougars as the Knights outscored MVNU 27-13 in the quarter.
Neither team scored in the opening three minutes until Jayla Wehner connected with Collier for the two-pointer. Mt. Vernon put together a 10-2 run to cut the Marian lead down to 66-52, but Perryman put a stop to run as she put in the midrange jumper. MVNU tried their best to claw back as they hit two from the line but the dominating offense of Marian proved to be too much. Alexa McKinley, Kenna Kirby, and Wehner all found the bottom of the net in the final two minutes to help Marian pick up the 75-59 win.
Collier led the Knights with 22 points on 8-9 shooting and 3-3 from three-point range, while also pulling down five rebounds. Bosse went for her first career double-double with 13 points and a career-high 10 rebounds, while Evans was the other double digit scorer for Marian with 10 points. Evans also added three steals and three assists. Sara Majorosova added nine points, while Kinnidy Garrard had six points and seven rebounds.
Marian will have another tough test on Wednesday, January 25 when they travel to Grace. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m.
MUKnights.com: Your online source for Marian Athletics, tickets, multimedia, Knight merchandise, photos and more.
