INDIANAPOLIS – The Marian women's basketball team kicked off their postseason with a win over Mount Vernon Nazarene on Tuesday night, defeating the Cougars 87-74 in the Crossroads League Tournament Quarterfinals. The win advance Marian to the semifinals as their record moves to 25-4.
The first quarter of play was tightly contested as neither team seemed to be able to pull away with both teams trading points. Mount Vernon led for a majority of the first three minutes of the game before Ella Collier found Kinnidy Garrard in paint to give Marian the 8-7 lead. Both teams went back and forth until a pair of free throws from Abbey McNally sparked a 9-0 run for the Knights that ended with Sara Majorosova connecting with Aliyah Evans from full court to end quarter one ahead 25-16.
MVNU was the first to strike with two free throws to begin the second quarter before Jayla Wehner answered with a jumper to extend the lead back to nine. The Cougars continued to put pressure on the Marian defense as they found themselves within five at 38-33 with 1:58 to go in the quarter after back-to-back layups. Collier drained the three-pointer to put her team back up by eight, but MVNU responded right back with their own triple. Each team got a layup in the final 47 seconds of the half, sending the Knights to the locker room with 43-38 advantage.
After the break, Marian's offense started flowing after Collier knocked down the first five points to spark a 9-0 run to extend their lead to 52-38. The Cougars put a stop to the run with a layup after answering on a Marian turnover. However, the Knights picked back up where they left off with McNally scoring and blocking MVNU's attempt, leading to a basket for Collier. Both teams went scoreless for around the next two minutes before a 6-2 spurt by the Knights gave them their largest lead at 20. The guests responded with the next five points, but the trey by Majorosova and Collier layup with 16 seconds left gave Marian the 71-52 advantage going into the final period of action.
The Cougars never stopped clawing their way back into the game as they outscored the Knights 22-16 in the fourth quarter. The start of the quarter went point for point, but Majorosova canned her third triple of the night with 2:45 remaining to go back up 84-67. MVNU would not go away easy as they managed to cut their deficit to 13, but Marian was able to hold on to pick up the 87-74 win.
Collier paced Marian with 22 points and dished out four assists, while Evans added 13 points and a team-high five assists. Majorosova scored 12 points and McNally poured in the double double with 10 points 10 rebounds. Wehner had nine, while Allison Bosse and Garrard had seven apiece.
Marian will be back in action on Friday at 7 PM when they host Grace in the Crossroads League Tournament semifinals.
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