No. 15 Seed Marist Faces Off Against No. 2 Seed Louisville in NCAA Tournament First Round
No. 15 seed Marist College (18-3) vs. No. 2 seed University of Louisville (23-3)
2021 NCAA Tournament First Round – Alamo Region
Monday, March 22 | 8:00 p.m. ET | ESPN
Alamodome (South Court) | San Antonio, Texas
The 2021 MAAC Champions, Marist College (18-3), will face the No. 2 seed in the Alamo Region, University of Louisville (23-3), in the First Round of the 2021 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament.
The 15th-seeded Red Foxes will take on the No. 2 seeded Cardinals tomorrow, Monday, March 22
nd at 8:00 p.m. in San Antonio, Texas.
This is the third time in program history Marist has faced Louisville: Dec. 18, 2010 - Marist 74, Louisville 68 at the Duel in the Desert (Las Vegas, Nevada) & Nov. 27, 2015 - Louisville 65, Marist 53 at the Gulf Coast Showcase (Estero, Florida).
The Red Foxes are competing in their 11th NCAA Tournament, all under Head Coach Brian Giorgis, and their first one since 2014. All-time, Marist is 5-10 in the Big Dance, accounting for over half of the MAAC's total victories in the NCAA Tournament.
Leading the way for the Red Foxes is Willow Duffell, who was named the 2021 MAAC Championship Most Outstanding Performer. She averaged 17.0 points, 12.0 rebounds, and 4.7 assists in Marist's three victories at the MAAC Championship. Duffell was joined on the All-Championship Team by Freshman Caitlin Weimar and Senior Allie Best. Weimar averaged 10.5 points, 10.0 rebounds, and 3.5 blocked shots in her two games. Best, the NCAA leader in assist-to-turnover ratio, had 19 assists against just three turnovers in three games.
Louisville is making its 23rd NCAA Tournament appearance and 12th in 13 tournaments under head coach Jeff Walz. The Cardinals are playing in their 10th straight NCAA Tournament. Louisville is 34-22 all-time. They were 4-11 in their first 11 appearances and are 30-11 in their 11 appearances with Walz.
Senior guard Dana Evans is an AP First Team All-American, the 2021 Jersey Mike's Naismith Trophy finalist, and the two-time ACC Player of the Year, averaging a conference-best 20.0 points per game. Kianna Smith (11.5 points per game), Hailey Van Lith (11.2 points per game), and Olivia Cochran (10.7 points per game) average double figures as well.
Marist became the first MAAC program, men's or women's, to advance to the Sweet 16, coming in 2007. The 13-seed Red Foxes toppled No. 4 Ohio State 67-63 and No. 5 Middle Tennessee St. 73-59, before falling to top-seed Tennessee. With a win over Louisville, Marist would capture its sixth NCAA Tournament victory, the most by any MAAC program, men's or women's.
In the NCAA Tournament, 15-seeds are 0-104 all-time entering this year's postseason. Seeds 13-16 have 10 total wins in the Big Dance. The Red Foxes have three of them: two in 2007, and the one in 2012.
The winner will face off against the winner of No. 7 Northwestern University vs. No. 10 University of Central Florida in the second round.
About Time Out for Black Lives
Time Out for Black Lives aims to inspire and educate youth, athletes, families and fans. The initiative has an interactive website where coaches and student-athletes from MAAC basketball programs contribute their time and resources to read children’s books in entertaining videos, all focusing on Black culture, history, music and myths. The program comes as part of the MAAC’s
United for Justice campaign that was announced over the summer. For more information, visit
timeoutforblacklives.com.
About the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference:
With 11 institutions strongly bound by the sound principles of quality and integrity in academics and excellence in athletics, the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) celebrates its 40th year of competition during the 2020-21 academic year. Current conference members include: Canisius College, Fairfield University, Iona College, Manhattan College, Marist College, Monmouth University, Niagara University, Quinnipiac University, Rider University, Saint Peter’s University, and Siena College.