Tim O’Toole could hardly contain his anger. As he sat in the interview room at the McCann Center Friday night, he mocked his team’s attempts to shut down Marist sharp-shooter Will Whittington, who had just completed a 25-point assault on the Stags, tying his own school record with eight three-pointers made in a 91-72 rout of the Stags.
“That was not our game plan – to use the reverse psychology mode; the element of surprise. Here Mr. Whittington, we’re not going to guard you,” he said as freshman point guard Jonathan Han sat by his side.
O’Toole’s frustration stemmed from what he perceived to be a lack of effort and organization. In the fifth game of a six-game road trip, the longest of the season, the Stags were overwhelmed from start to finish and fell to 3-5 in the MAAC, putting them near the bottom of the six-team cluster in the middle of the conference standings.
“I thought we were horrible, to make a long story short,” he said. “It’s pretty straightforward: was anyone even on Whittington?”
That though, was hardly the entire problem. As O’Toole watched, Hartford native Jared Jordan, in whom the Stags showed some interest when he was a senior at Hartford High School, dazzled the raucous Marist student section with assist after assist, finishing with 12 to accompany his 17 points.
Keeping with Head Coach Matt Brady’s inside-outside attack, the two Red Foxes post players dominated along with the guards. Seven-foot center James Smith had 18 points – including two three-pointers – and a career-high 13 rebounds; 6’8″ power forward Ryan Stilphen chipped in with 13 points.
All of this delighted the student section at McCann, which Han described as perhaps “the craziest gym we’ve played in this year.” With the Red Foxes already in the midst of a 13-2 run, Jordan gave the McCann maniacs more of a reason to erupt when he sunk a high-arcing three pointer at the buzzer, giving the Foxes a 51-31 lead as the home team jogged off the court and gave the Stags something to think about in the locker room.
Although they outscored Marist 41-40 in the second half and Han and Terrance Todd came alive, finishing with 17 points apiece, the game was over long before the buzzer sounded. After the game, O’Toole and company could only marvel at the team they had just played, which won its fifth straight game and improved to 10-6 overall, 4-4 in the MAAC.
“Marist is as good as anyone,” O’Toole said.
The next time the two teams meet, the Stags hope to avenge the loss, but more importantly, they hope the game means something.
That meeting will take place on Feb. 25 at the Arena, with a first round bye potentially on the line for the MAAC tournament.
For O’Toole and the Stags though, that game is a long way away. The next order of business was to head down I-95 to Baltimore Tuesday night for a re-match with Loyola, who handed the Stags a crushing 90-85 loss in the conference opener on Dec. 9.
“Unfortunately, ” O’Toole said, “it’s all of that.”
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