BRIDGEPORT, CONN. - Senior guard Erica Allenspach (Miamisburg, Ohio) matched a career-high with 34 points as the #21/18 Marist women's basketball team advanced to the 2011 Spark Energy Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) Basketball Championship finals with a 60-45 win over the fourth-seeded Siena Saints on Saturday. Allenspach's point total not only matched a career-high, but was the most points scored by a Red Fox in a single game in conference tournament history. The win also marks the eighth straight year Marist will be in the MAAC Finals.
Allenspach's 34 points tied for the third most in MAAC history during the conference tournament. She sank a career-high 12 field goals on 18 attempts and tied a career-high with six three-point baskets. The 6-for-7 performance from distance ranks fifth on Marist's single-game list with a percentage of .857.
Junior guard Corielle Yarde (Reading, Pa.) finished with her third double-double of the season. She had 10 points and a game-high 10 rebounds. Additionally, senior guard Élise Caron (Quebec, Canada) grabbed a career-high eight rebounds, while tallying four assists and no turnovers. Saturday marked the fifth time this season Caron had multiple assists and no turnovers in a game.
Marist and Siena exchanged buckets in the first 3:59 of the contest. Following a Cathy Cockrum layup that gave the Saints a 7-5 lead, the Red Foxes used a 6-0 run to take an 11-7 advantage with 12:53 to go in the half. Marist got baskets from sophomore Kate Oliver (Sydney, Australia), Allenspach and sophomore Kelsey Beynnon (Burlington, Vt.).
The Saints fired back with a 7-0 spurt of their own to reclaim a 14-11 advantage with 8:23 remaining in the opening stanza. Allenspach tied the game at 14 apiece with 7:49 on the clock with one of her six triples.
Allenspach and Yarde hit back-to-back threes just 33 seconds apart to give Marist a six-point advantage, 20-14, with 2:40 to go. The Red Foxes' lead pushed back to six on two other instances. Christina Centeno closed the half with a three-pointer for Siena to make the halftime score 25-22 in favor of Marist.
Over a span of 3:30 in the early stages, the Red Foxes used an 11-2 run to grow the lead into double figures for the remainder of the game. Allenspach had her hand in the first nine points of the run. She scored seven of the nine points and assisted on an Oliver layup. Following the run, Marist led 37-24 with 14:25 to play.
The largest lead of the game was a 17-point advantage, which came on two instances, both of which were created by Allenspach. She split a pair of free throws with 3:08 remaining to make the score 54-37. Twenty-five seconds later she drained a jump shot to give Marist a 56-39 lead with 2:43 on the clock.
Marist shot 44.4 percent (12-for-27) in the second half and Allenspach made six of the team's eight three-point baskets. The Red Foxes scored 24 points in the paint and 20 points of 18 Siena turnovers.
After a day off, the Red Foxes will play in the 2011 Spark Energy MAAC Basketball Championship title game on Monday, March 7 at 1 p.m. Marist will take on the second-seeded Loyola. The game will be televised nationally on ESPNU and ESPN3.com. Doug Sherman and Kayte Christensen will have the call.