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Women's Basketball

Fisher, Halker to be Enshrined in Springfield

June 27, 2018

LOUDONVILLE, NY – Siena Basketball legends Tay Fisher ’08 and Melanie (Halker) Moore ’99 have been named to the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Hall of Fame Honor Roll Class of 2018. The duo will be enshrined in “The MAAC Experience” exhibit at the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in a special ceremony set for Sept. 15 in Springfield, Massachusetts.

Fisher forever cemented his spot in Siena Basketball history with a pair of legendary postseason performances during his senior season in 2008, when the captained the Saints to their first of three consecutive MAAC Championships and NCAA Tournament appearances. He celebrated his 22nd birthday by coming off the bench to score a team-high 21 points fueled by a career-high tying six threes in Siena’s 74-53 MAAC Championship Game rout of Rider. Then in the First Round of the NCAA Tournament, Fisher set a program postseason record by going a perfect 6-for-6 from three-point range while scoring 19 points in the 13th seeded Saints’ 83-62 blowout of No. 4 Vanderbilt.

Fisher ranks as the second most prolific three-point shooter in program history with 229 career threes. The Kingston, New York product appeared in 124 career games including 53 starts, and amassed 912 career points. During his memorable senior season, he led Siena with 71 threes while shooting a proficient 44.4% from distance, and was named to the 2008 MAAC All-Tournament Team for his postseason heroics.

Currently known more extensively by his professional nickname, “Firefly,” Fisher was drafted in 2008 by the Harlem Globetrotters, and has entertained fans around the world for nearly a decade.

A 2005 Siena Athletics Hall of Fame inductee, Halker was a two-time MAAC Player of the Year (1998, 1999), and the only three-time First Team All-MAAC selection in program history (1997-99). The 1995-96 MAAC Rookie of the Year, she holds Siena’s all-time career records for both rebounds (1,122) and rebounds per game (10.0). Halker also set program single-season benchmarks for field goals made (263 in 1998-99), rebounds (341 in 1996-97), and rebounds per game (12.2 in 1996-97), and is the single-game record holder for rebounds with 24 vs. Canisius on Jan. 23, 1997.

Siena’s second all-time leading scorer with 2,021 points, Halker joins last year’s Siena MAAC Hall of Fame Honor Roll inductee Laura (Menty) Menges ’08 as the only two players in program history to lead the team in scoring in each of their four seasons donning the Green and Gold. The Glandorf, Ohio standout ranks second in school history in field goals made (850), and seventh in both field goal percentage (.513) and free throws made (320). Halker scored a program MAAC Tournament record 34 points in the 1998 Quarterfinals vs. Rider, and capped her brilliant career with a 27-point, 12-rebound performance to lead the Saints over Georgetown in the school’s first-ever Division I national postseason tournament appearance in the 1999 WNIT.

Halker played professionally for two years in Luxembourg and Israel before beginning a highly decorated career as a Division I assistant coach. The associate head coach at the University of Michigan, she has helped guide the Wolverines to national postseason tournament appearances in each of her first six seasons with the program, highlighted by a WNIT Championship in 2017. Halker previously served as an assistant coach at both Princeton (2007-12) and Indiana State (2004-06), after first entering the ranks with a two-year stint on the sidelines for the Saints (2002-04), which she helped lead to the program’s most recent WNIT appearance in 2003.

This marks the eighth year of the MAAC Hall of Fame Honor Roll. Every year, each MAAC member institution honors one male and one female from its basketball family as part of the induction class.

A dinner event will be held on Sept. 15 at the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Court of Dreams to recognize the Honor Roll inductees. Each honoree will also be profiled in the game program for the 2019 MAAC Basketball Championships, in addition to being featured in a video display at "The MAAC Experience."

Siena's MAAC Hall of Fame Honor Roll Honorees
2011 – Dinny Cahill '75 and Liz Lops `94
2012 – Bruce Schroeder '92 and Val (Higgins) O'Dell `92
2013 – Billy Harrell '52 and Lisa (Serafino) Ruggiero `94
2014 – Doug Poetzsch '85 and Lily Grenci ‘13
2015 – Fred Shear '73 and Kristin Bernert `96
2016 – Coach Paul Hewitt and Mary (Gaudreau) Messer `83
2017 – Marc Brown ’91 and Laura (Menty) Menges ’08
2018 – Tay Fisher ’08 and Melanie (Halker) Moore ‘99

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