Yarde has 17, Fitz 15 as Marist beats Fairfield 66-49 for fifth straight MAAC women’s title

Yarde leads Marist over Fairfield, 66-49

ALBANY, N.Y. — Corielle Yarde scored 17 points, tournament MVP Rachele Fitz added 15 and Erica Allensbach had 13 as Marist beat Fairfield 66-49 on Sunday to win the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference women’s title for the fifth straight time.

It was the seventh straight title appearance for the Red Foxes (26-7), with their only loss in the championship game a 60-59 setback to Canisius in 2005.

Marist (25-7) beat fifth-seeded Niagara 69-47 in the semifinals, holding the Purple Eagles scoreless over the final 5½ minutes and finishing the game on a 10-0 run.

The Red Foxes were challenged in this one by the Stags (19-13), who went cold when the game was on the line after staying within four points through the first 32 minutes.

Fairfield shot 10 of 27 in the second half, hitting just 2 of 10 shots from beyond the arc and 3 of 20 for the game.

Desiree Pina led Fairfield with 16 points, while Katelyn Linney and Stephanie Geehan each had 10. Tara Flaherty finished with six points and 10 rebounds for the Stags, who lost despite dominating the offensive glass 15-6.

Fairfield, which trailed 34-24 at halftime, rallied to within four points in the first 5 minutes of the second half as Marist went 1 of 8 from the floor. Pina hit a foul line jumper and fed Katelyn Linney for a 3 from the right corner to move the Stags to 37-33 at 15:20.

Marist boosted its lead to 46-38 midway through the period after a Fitz block in the lane on Linney led to a fastbreak layup by Yarde. But a driving layup off the glass by Linney and a wide-open layup by Tara Flaherty had the Stags back to 48-44 with 8:30 left.

That was as close as the Stags could manage as they missed their next eight shots and the Red Foxes took control with a 9-0 run.

Allenspach began it with a 3 from the right wing at 7:35, Fitz hit a layup, and Allenspach followed with a pair of free throws and a layup off an inbounds pass to boost the Marist lead to 57-44 with 4:34 to go.

Fairfield went without a basket for nearly 8 minutes after Flaherty’s layup, missing 11 straight shots in all. The Stags’ lone points until Pina’s layup with 53 seconds left came on her three free throws after she was fouled shooting a 3.

The score was tied four times in the first seven minutes as neither team led by more than four. A three-point play by Taryn Johnson moved Fairfield to 23-22 with 8:05 left in the opening half.

The Red Foxes then closed the period with an 11-2 spurt as the Stags sputtered, missing six straight shots and committing three turnovers. Yarde began the spurt with a baseline jumper from 8 feet after a nice fake and followed that with a pair of free throws for a five-point edge.

Brandy Gang, averaging just 3.3 points, then scored six straight points to give Marist a 34-22 lead. Gang drove the baseline around Brittany MacFarlane for a layup, converted another layup off a pretty feed from Lynzee Johnson as the shot clock was about to expire, and hit a wide-open shot from the right side.

Pina’s runner with a minute left in the half stopped a 7-minute scoreless drought for the Stags.