The Marist College Women's Red Foxes (7) are playing LSU (2) tonight in Baton Rouge. This is going to be a tough one. Marist has dominated the MAAC this year (32-2 overall) but this is....LSU.  Of course, they can't think that when they're playing. I would, but then again, I don't play Div. I ball. LSU has the Southeastern Conference player of the year, Sylvia Fowles. She's big and big. Did I mention she's big?

LSU's coach  Van Chancellor called Marist "the best defensive basketball team I've ever seen." That's high praise and I'm not arguing. (They remind me of my youth team, who, did I tell you lost to the first place team in the playoffs by only three points?!! We held them to their lowest offensive effort all season - 19 points! It would've been like Giants vs. Patriots! We ended up third in defensive stats, holding our opponents to low scores all season long. But enough about us...back to Marist...)

My daughter is rooting for Rachele Fitz (same name) and Nikki Flores because she's short and she's good. I'm rooting for a homegrown favorite,  Julianne Viani. She's got an evil-good 3-point shot and she went to high school here in town. She was also coached by the Marist coach, Brian Giorgis in high school. They go way back.

My paper's writer covering the Red Foxes, Sean T. McMann said Marist is ranked 22nd in both the Associated Press and ESPN/USA Today national polls and they have longest winning streak in the country at 22 wins.

Marist is fun to watch. The ESPN announcers are calling them "spunky." That's not the right word...it should be "tenacious." I've never seen them get rattled, even when they're down. They had an amazing second half comeback against DePaul on Saturday to get them to this round. They play their game and they're patient, patient and more patient. 

Both teams have a ton of key, high-scoring seniors playing. This is going to be an intense game for both the Red Foxes and the LSU Tigers. I've already seen a few rejections by LSU and it's very physical. LSU is forcing turnovers which is quite unlike Marist. They typically have great ball control  They're keeping Marist outside, but that's not necessarily a disaster for Marist with a Julianne Viani in the game.

Going into the half, Marist is only down by two...a nail-biter!

Go Marist!