How Marist’s 2007 Sweet Sixteen Team Upset Its Way Into History

After not having made an NCAA Tournament since 2014, the Marist Red Foxes women’s basketball team was two wins away from earning the MAAC’s automatic bid this season. On the horizon was a No. 2 vs. No. 3 semifinal against three-seed Fairfield, and perhaps a rubber match with No. 1 Rider — with whom Marist shared identical 18-2 conference records — in the championship.

But like many other conference tournaments, the MAAC’s was canceled due to concerns about coronavirus after three of four quarterfinals had been played. And so, the Red Foxes would never know if they’d get that chance.

Head coach Brian Giorgis knows how good he had it this season, though.

“This year’s team was every bit as good as many of our other championship teams,” Giorgis said in an e-mail. “It was heartbreaking to see it end the way it did, but we all learned a valuable lesson: that there are things much more important in the world than a basketball game.”

That assessment of his team comes from experience. The 10-time winner of the MAAC tournament has already had just that: 10 opportunities on the big stage. Marist won all 10 of them across the 11 MAAC tournaments between 2004 and 2014 before Quinnipiac became the conference’s latest postseason darling. The Bobcats even made a Sweet Sixteen trip in 2017.

Before that, though, came Marist: the first MAAC basketball team, men or women, to make a Sweet Sixteen, during an unforgettable run in the 2007 NCAA Tournament. The Red Foxes, who had never won an NCAA Tournament game before, remain the most recent No. 13 seed to reach the regional semifinal in the women’s tournament.

Here’s how it happened:

Marist 67, No. 4 Ohio State 63

“We just got sick and tired of people underestimating us.” — Meg Dahlman, junior center

Perhaps already having proven they were underseeded by their 27-win résumé — combined with the Buckeyes’ 28, it was the most wins in a first-round matchup in tournament history — Marist silenced any doubters immediately by beating the country’s eighth-ranked team.

“[This win] put Marist women’s basketball on the map,” Giorgis said. “It put our school in the national spotlight. It was David beating Goliath.”

Although Ohio State had finished 15-1 in the Big Ten, it entered the NCAA Tournament having just lost to Purdue in its tournament championship. Buckeyes senior center Jessica Davenport was averaging career-bests in points (20) and rebounds (9.6) and had led the team in both metrics most games.

Marist took aim at the three-time Big Ten Player of the Year and succeeded, as Davenport finished with 13 points, five rebounds and 11 turnovers — almost as many as the Red Foxes committed as a team.

It turned out Marist’s MAAC dominance could translate against a Big Ten team in other ways, too. The Red Foxes matched their conference-leading points per game in the win, thanks in part to Julianne Viani’s six 3-pointers and 24 points, both career-highs. Their nationally ninth-ranked defense kept the Buckeyes from getting anywhere near their own Big Ten-leading scoring average.

“The feeling, I can’t describe it in words,” Viani said postgame. “I definitely felt it. We all just had such a peace and [shots] were falling.”

Marist 73, No. 5 Middle Tennessee State 59

“I don’t think anybody expected a mid-major from the MAAC to be in the Sweet Sixteen. It’s incredible.” — Alisa Kresge, senior guard

Sure, the Red Foxes’ then-28 wins were impressive. But of the Sun Belt champion Blue Raiders’ 30 wins, 27 of them had come in their last 27 games — the longest winning streak in the country.

Once again, Marist’s plan of attack was to take out the opponent’s best player — this time, that was senior guard Chrissy Givens, the nation’s fourth-leading scorer and the focal point of Middle Tennessee’s nation’s fourth-best offense. The Red Foxes held Givens to 16 points, and the Blue Raiders (who led for just 50 seconds all game) to their lowest point total all season.

Alisa Kresge was electric at the point for Marist, dishing nine assists, while Nikki Flores’ 21 points paced the scoring. The team also recovered from a season-low rebounding performance against Ohio State, this time out-rebounding Middle Tennessee 36-30.

With that, the Red Foxes became the third 13-seed ever to make a Sweet Sixteen, after Texas A&M in 1994 and Liberty in 2005. The win spoke to what Marist’s success meant not just to their program, but to the MAAC as a whole — and that remains true today, Giorgis explained.

“I do feel that the MAAC has arrived as a strong mid-major conference on the national stage,” he said. “One measure of this is that the Power Five schools won’t do home-and-home games with either us or Quinnipiac. The last to do it with us was Oklahoma — which we won — in 2013, and no one has done it since.”

No. 1 Tennessee 65, Marist 46

“It’s tough to lose, but to lose to that team is really not that tough.” — Brian Giorgis, head coach

Call it an unlucky draw — or call it a once-in-a-lifetime opponent.

“It’s interesting that both us and Quinnipiac lost to the eventual national champion in the Sweet Sixteen,” Giorgis said. (The Bobcats fell to South Carolina in 2017.)

Because if a Cinderella run is going to end, let it be to one of the country’s biggest and most historic powerhouses. Led by Hall of Fame coach Pat Summitt and sophomore Candace Parker, the Lady Vols came into the matchup 30-3. Despite finishing with a 14-0 record in SEC play, though, they were knocked out of the SEC tournament in the semifinals.

Still, naturally, there was a sense of wonderment on the Marist side.

“We were kind of in awe, and I was kind of in awe of Pat,” Giorgis said. “She was such a classy lady!”

The Lady Vols immediately took it to the Red Foxes, as Parker began the game shooting 8-for-8 on the way to a 42-21 halftime advantage. Marist also committed 10 first-half turnovers, 1.5 away from their nation’s-best 11.5 per game.

Though Marist eventually regrouped in the second half, outscoring Tennessee by two points and holding it to under 40% shooting, the damage was done. Meg Dahlman’s 16 points and eight rebounds and MAAC Rookie of the Year Rachele Fitz’s 13 points led the Red Foxes.

Despite the 19-point loss, nothing could diminish what this journey meant to Marist.

“For Tennessee, [playing in the tournament is] an expectation,” Giorgis said postgame. “But for us, it’s the greatest moment in our athletic lives.”