Monday, December 3, 2007

McCroskey Pushes Foxes 4-ward

Bronx product Louie McCroskey led the Marist Red Foxes to their 4th straight win Saturday, putting up career highs in what was a 79-64 thumping of Wright State. The red-shirt guard by way of Syracuse had a break out performance scoring 24 points on 10-19 shooting while grabbing 8 boards and going 3-3 from downtown.

However, it was a total team effort in front of a packed crowd at the McCann Center, with 10 Marist players cracking the scoring column. Jay Gavin (10 pts), Spongy Benjamin (9 redounds), David Devezin(8 pts, 7 assists), and Shea McNamara( 8pts, 5 rebounds) all had solid games leading to what coach Matt Brady called a "great team victory."

With the win the Red Foxes move to 5-3 and avenge what was a disappointing loss to Wright State last season.

The success of this 4 game win streak has been the result of the Red Foxes intense and at times dominate defensive effort, which during this strech, has seen the Red Foxes give up their lowest point total since 1985. However, as seen on Saturday, the Red Foxes are also starting to click on the offensive end, with players up and down this deep roster contrbuting to the scoring effort.

"Everyone who got into the game played really hard, played really really well, played smart," Coach Matt Brady told the Poughkeepsie Journal. "This is really what I think our team can do, (have a high-scoring offense)...I think we can get into the high 70s."

After a slow start to the season highlighted by a 3 game losing streak in San Juan, the Red Foxes have come together over the past couple weeks and have shown their potential in this 'post-Jordan' era. With a new wave of athletic talent to complement Brady's winning system, the Red Foxes finally seem to be meshing and are becoming more confident and unitied as a team. The 4 game win streak, if anything, has proven that the Red Foxes are not rebuilding and when playing together, can be a real threat in the conference.

But they have yet to play a conference game and Wednesday's match-up against MAAC rival Canisius will be an important and telling test for the Red Foxes to see where they stand in the MAAC.

No comments: