INDIANAPOLIS – The Marian women's basketball team advanced to the NAIA Second Round game with a commanding 80-59 win over 14-seed Florida Memorial, winning the opening game of the Indianapolis Bracket. Marian is now 27-5 as they advance to the second round game.

Marian got out to an 8-2 lead to start, but Florida Memorial started to fire back as they took the 10-9 lead after an 8-1 run. However, the Knights were able to find some late momentum to close out quarter one after Allison Bosse drained the three-pointer with 41 seconds left to give Marian the 21-10 lead.

It wasn't until the 8:16 mark when the first basket was made in the second quarter, with the Lions getting four straight buckets. The two teams traded points through the next few minutes as the Knights seemed to have a bit of a sluggish quarter of play. Tamia Perryman ignited a bit of spark for Marian at with 1:07 to go, scoring the layup on the transition play from Sara Majorosova. Bosse closed out the quarter with a pair of freebies to take the 32-24 lead into halftime.

Ella Collier wasted no time as she knocked down the layup seconds into the third quarter, sparking an 8-0 spurt to increase Marian's lead to 18. A three-pointer and putback layup by Florida Memorial answered the run. Perryman and Aliyah Evans carried the Marian offense in the final 3:34 of play. The duo combined for eight of the ten final points to hold the 55-34 lead after the third quarter.

Marian continued to be efficient in the fourth quarter growing their lead to as many as 29 after Jayla Wehner canned the triple with 6:19 left to play. The Lions never stopped fighting, but the Marian lead was too much to handle. With the lead at hand, Marian was able to pull their starters, giving the reserves a long run over the final minutes of play to put away the game 80-59.

Collier, Bosse, and Abbey McNally all led with 15 points, while Perryman scored 11. McNally pulled down a season-high 15 rebounds and added two blocks. Majorosova dished out a team-high six assists to go along with six points.

Marian will play the winner of Texarkana and Grand View Wednesday night at 7 p.m. in the NAIA Opening Round Championship. The winner of Wednesday's game will advance to the NAIA Tournament final site in Sioux City, Iowa.

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