Marist hammers Bucknell

David Devezin remains sidelined with a heel injury, but Ryan Schneider has certainly picked up the slack lately.
The senior captain scored a career-high 29 points and grabbed a team-high nine rebounds as the Red Foxes disposed of the Bucknell Bison, 89-63, on Sunday night at the McCann Center.
In the last two games, Schneider has averaged 25.5 points and 14 rebounds in Marist's last two wins over Delaware and Bucknell.
For Marist head coach Chuck Martin, Schneider's play has not wavered at all this season. Schneider is likely to be named MAAC player of the week later on today.
"He's been like that all season. It's not a surprise to the guys in the locker room or the guys on staff," Martin said regarding Schneider. "He's been performing at a high level and I think now he's starting to get some attention because the numbers are so inflated...but he's been like this all year for us."
Schneider shot 13-of-19 from the field and emerged as the No. 1 scoring option against Bucknell. For Schneider, Marist's defense led to the opportunities at the offensive end.
"I know coming into the game I was more motivated defensively," Schneider said. "This kid Patrick Behan was averaging about 14 ppg and I was really pretty high about trying to keep him below his average. That to me was more important, but yeah, the basket looked like an ocean, so it was a pretty good day."
Bucknell entered the game at 3-7 but boasted wins over Old Dominion and Binghamton. The team's largest losses of the season came against Wake Forest and Maryland, both by 29. With 12:37 remaining in the game, Marist freshman walk-on Mike Taylor drained a straightaway three-pointer to give Marist a 30-point lead at 59-29.
Taylor has become a reliable option off the bench for Chuck Martin. When Taylor came to Marist, he had no intentions of playing basketball, but the Red Foxes' thin bench provided him an opportunity to play Division I basketball. Taylor scored a career-high nine points on 3-of-5 shooting in 16 minutes.
"Mike's been great in practice, he really has been," Martin said. "He's been, along with the other walk-ons, he's elevated our practice because we've been depleted... Honestly he's just caught the eye of our staff... and he's proven to hold his own for the last two games."
Taylor never expected to get this chance, but with the injuries to Devezin and Dorvell Carter, an opportunity provided itself.
"It feels good to just have the opportunity to come out and show that I can play," Taylor said. "No, not at all [did I expect this opportunity]. It's just that we have a couple injuries and a couple guys get fatigued and people have to step up."
With Devezin's injury, players like Taylor and freshman R.J. Hall have gotten a chance to play significant minutes for the Red Foxes. In many ways, Devezin's injury could strengthen the team when the MAAC schedule resumes and act as a blessing in disguise.
"It's worked out that way, it really has," Martin said. "That's another issue that we've talked about, we don't know when Dave's coming back but when he does come back, it's important that the guys that have been playing well and performing well, that they don't defer to Dave because Dave is a talent. He can really, really play so we don't need to slow down for him, he'll catch up to us. It may have been a blessing in disguise."
Four Red Foxes notched career-highs in points. In addition to Schneider and Taylor, Javon Parris and Dejuan Goodwin scored the most points in their careers. Goodwin scored 16 and Parris tallied 15.
Javon Parris, the one-time College of Charleston product and JuCo transfer, said that he feels he's getting acclimated to the offense after several years in multiple systems.
"Obviously it's a learning adjustment for all of us," Parris said. "This has been my fourth coach in four years and just being able to sink in and keep learning, but the last couple days I've just been doing what coach wanted me to do since day one...the guards have just been doing a real good job of getting me easy baskets."
Bucknell head coach Dave Paulsen believes his team's performance resulted from a combination of his team's offense and Marist taking advantage.
"From our end that was a train wreck," Paulsen said. "You could see from watching the tape that [Marist] was close, that they were starting to figure things out, pick things up.
"To be honest with you, it was really our offense," Paulsen said. "We had so many empty trips...More than anything our lack of offensive poise led to their transition game, and once they got their transition game going they knocked down some open shots, and that gave them confidence to knock down some other shots."
Marist will return to action Tuesday night, dec. 30, at Binghamton before resuming its MAAC schedule on Jan. 2 at home against Saint Peter's. Marist is 5-8 on the season and 1-1 in conference-play.