Hot Shooting Leads Marist Past QU Men's Basketball

Friday, February 26

McCann Field House - Poughkeepsie, NY

7:00 PM

Quinnipiac University

9-19, 6-13MAAC

Marist College

7-22, 4-16MAAC

Quinnipiac

Marist

2/26/2016 9:03:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

By: QU Sports Information

POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. – The Marist Red Foxes shot 56 percent from the floor for the game (31-55) and were able to maintain a lead between 9 and 15 points over the final 17 minutes to capture a 91-77 win over Quinnipiac on Friday evening at the McCann Center.

With the win, Marist closes out the regular season on a two-game win streak to improve to 7-22 overall and 4-16 in the MAAC, while avenging a 79-53 defeat to Quinnipiac on Feb. 4 at the TD Bank Center. Quinnipiac slips to 9-19 overall and 6-13 in the MAAC with the loss, heading into its regular season finale at Siena on Sunday.

Khallid Hart led the way for Marist with 21 points on 6-10 shooting, while Brian Parker had 20 points on 7-10 shooting. Junior guard Daniel Harris (Tampa, Fla.) led Quinnipiac with 16, while sophomore forward Chaise Daniels (Meriden, Conn.) added 13 and sophomore guard Dimitri Floras (Nashua, N.H.) chipped in with 12.

Quinnipiac spent most of the second half trying to rally back from a double-digit deficit. After a tight first half, Kristinn Palsson hit a three-pointer to beat the buzzer and give the Red Foxes a 42-36 lead at the break. Marist then quickly got the lead into double figures when Hart three-pointer made it 49-39 at the 17:08 mark.

The Bobcats were able to get the lead down to nine several times, and nearly had it down to six with just under five minutes left, but senior guard Giovanni McLean had a three-pointer waved off due to an illegal screen and Marist scored the next four points to build the lead to 13 at 77-64 with 3:40 to play.

Quinnipiac put on a full court press late that resulted in a couple of turnovers as the Bobcats tried to put together a frantic rally. Harris hit a pair of three-pointers in the final three minutes to get a 15-point lead down to 10, and Floras added another to get it back down from 13 to 10. The Bobcats had a couple of chances to hit threes to cut it to seven in the final two minutes, but were unsuccessful and Marist was able to leak out for a pair of uncontested transition baskets to help seal it.

Harris was 6-12 from the floor and 4-8 from three as he hit multiple three-pointers for the 22nd time in 28 games this season. The Bobcats held only a 33-32 lead on the boards, as they were unable to exploit a big advantage in the rebounding department on paper coming in as Marist averaged a 5.9 rebounding deficit on the season.

The Bobcats will next travel to Albany on Sunday to meet Siena in the regular season finale before returning to Albany again next week for the MAAC Tournament. Quinnipiac will play in the MAAC opening round on Thursday in either the 7-10 or the 8-9 game, depending on how the final weekend of the regular season plays out. Marist will also be in the opening round as the 11 seed and will meet the sixth seed (either Manhattan or Canisius).