Hand Scores 28, Red Foxes Earn First Win of 16-17

SAVANNAH, GA – Rebekah Hand scored the most points by a freshman in 18 years leading the Marist women’s basketball team to a 69-64 win over North Carolina A&T in the final day at the Savannah invitational. With the win the Red Foxes move to 1-6 on the year, North Carolina A&T are now 1-5.

Rebekah Hand’s 28 points surpassed Rachele Fitz’ 26 points as a freshman and fell just short of passing Marie Fusci, who had 30 points in her second career game back in 1998. Hand also finished with 12 rebounds.

Hannah Hand scored 13 points along with four rebounds and three assists. Claire Oberdorf tallied the third most free throws made in a game in program history with 13. She scored all 13 of her points from the free throw line.

The Red Foxes closed the first half on a 7-0 run spanning the final 2:49. North Carolina A&T headed to the locker room shooting 1-for-their-last-6 and 2-for-their-last-12.

A difficult shooting half for both teams, Marist shot 7-for-29 (.240) from the field while the Aggies shot 8-for-33 (.240). The Red Foxes were able to turn A&T over 13 times in the first half leading to 14 points off turnovers. In comparison Marist only turned the ball over five times, leading to three Aggies’ points.

Rebekah Hand led the way in the first half, scoring 16 points on 5-for-11 shooting from the field and 3-for-6 shooting from deep.

After an opening basket from Marist, the Aggies reeled off a 9-0 run to take a one-point advantage. Some good movement and a strong take to the hoop by the Red Foxes earned a trip to the line for Oberdorf. Her two free throws regained a 33-32 lead for Marist and snapped a near four minute scoreless drought.

After finding themselves in the bonus early the Red Foxes made multiple trips to the free throw line in the third quarter. A 9-for-10 performance from the stripe coupled with a stretch in which Marist went 4-for-4 from the field gave the Red Foxes a seven point, 52-45 lead heading into the fourth.

Marist heated up in the fourth and pulled away for good, scoring on 7-for-13 of their field goal attempts while holding the Aggies to 7-for-20 shooting in the final period.