The Marist backcourt duo of Louie McCroskey and David Devezin scored 13 and 10 points, respectively to help lead the visiting Red Foxes to a 63-53 win over Canisius College in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference opener for both teams Wednesday night in the Koessler Athletic Center. Marist has now won five straight and improved to 6-3 overall, 1-0 in the MAAC with the win, while the Golden Griffins slipped to 0-7 overall and 0-1 in league play.
Canisius junior Willie Hassell (pictured) led all scorers with 14 points, while sophomore guard Jovan Robinson added 11 points to the Griffs' effort. Frank Turner chipped in nine points to go with seven assists and five rebounds for the Blue and Gold, with Tomas Vazquez-Simmons adding six points and two blocked shots.
“We are still trying to find ourselves and put together a total 40-minute effort,” Canisius head coach Tom Parrotta said. “There's a five to six minute span in each game that we've really struggled with. We need to eliminate that to be successful.”
Marist came out of the gates and took an early 11-0 lead 3:41 into the contest before Canisius mounted its own 11-0 run, started by a 3-pointer by Hassell from the top of the key. The 5-foot-8 junior guard added two more points moments later to make the score 11-5 in favor of the Red Foxes and Canisius knotted the score at 11-11 with 12:01 left before halftime following back-to-back 3-pointers from Robinson and Turner.
The game remained tight through the last 10 minutes of the first stanza, with neither team able to post a lead of more than four points before the break. Hassell hit a 3-pointer with 2:46 left before intermission to pull Blue and Gold within one at 22-21, but Marist responded with 6-3 run to take a 28-24 hold into the locker room.
In the second half, Canisius came out and mounted an 8-4 run of its own to tie the game at 32-32 after Shaun James slammed one home for two of his season-high eight points. From there, the Red Foxes scored the game's next 11 points to take a 43-32 lead with 11:42 left, capped by a Ben Farmer 3-point field goal. Canisius got within four at 44-40 at the 6:15 mark, but Marist was able to keep the Griffs at bay thanks to a 57.9 percent shooting effort in the contest's final 20 minutes.
“We got down 11-0 early, but we didn't hang our heads and we kept working,” Parrotta said. “We didn't tie the game with an 11-point basket. We worked hard on defense and Willie [Hassell] hit some shots. We are a totally different team than we were on Nov. 13. These guys come to work everyday.”
Canisius will return to action Saturday, Dec. 8, at home when the Griffs play host to Rider. Tipoff is set for 7:30 p.m. in the Koessler Athletic Center.
Game Notes: Wednesday night's game against Marist was the 25th all-time meeting between the two schools, with Canisius holding a 13-12 advantage in the series... Frank Turner is averaging 12 points per game in his last five contests... Tomas Vazquez-Simmons added two more blocks to his season total, which is now stands at 27 through seven games... Shaun James added a season-high five rebounds to go with his eight points.
