Loudonville, N.Y. (December 8, 2006)?The first and second halves could not have been any different for the Lady Jaspers on Friday night against Siena. Manhattan could not buy a basket in the first half, but outscored the Saints 39-21 in the second half en route to a 52-42 victory. Jenna Franciosa scored a career high 16 points, 12 in the second half.
Manhattan spent the early parts of the first half digging themselves out of a 21-13 halftime deficit, but erased the lead thanks to a 17-8 run over the first eight minutes of the half. A basket by Jenna Franciosa at the 12:00 minute mark gave the Lady Jaspers their first lead of the game at 30-29.
A three-pointer by Siena's Katelyn Dooley briefly put Siena back in front 32-30, but Manhattan took command of the game for good on the heels of an 8-1 run. With Manhattan leading 35-32 Franciosa knocked down a three-pointer to put Manhattan up six. The Lady Jaspers turned up the defense in a big way during the run; Dooley's three-pointer was Siena's last field goal for nearly eleven minutes.
After a jumper by Gabrielle Cottrell extended Manhattan's lead to 40-33; Siena's Shondaya Burrell finally got the Saints back on the scoreboard with a lay-up to trim the lead to five with 1:42 left. But the Lady J's knocked down 11 of 13 foul shots over the final 90 seconds of the game to preserve the victory.
Both teams got off to a slow start shooting wise in the first half, both shooting under 28 percent. Siena jumped out to a 10-1 lead after seven minutes and extended its lead to 17-7 late in the half. Manhattan though went on a 6-0 run, with Kelly Regan knocking down two field goals to cut Siena's lead to four. Sarah Fullmer of Siena provided the final four points of the half with a lay-up and two foul shots to give the Saints a 21-13 halftime lead.
The Lady Jaspers shot a season high 80 percent from the foul line, and turned their fortunes around in the second half by shooting 45 percent and forcing the Saints into 11 turnovers. The Lady Jaspers also did well to limit the effectiveness of Siena's Laura Menty, the reigning MAAC Player of the Week. Menty scored 11 points when she had averaged 16 points per game over the last week. Manhattan improves to 4-4 on the season and gets their MAAC campaign off to a good start. Siena falls to 1-8 and have lost five straight games.
The 42 points in the fewest points Manhattan has allowed since the 2004-05 season, when they held Wagner to 39 points in a 44-39 win.
Manhattan returns to action on Sunday when they play their second MAAC game of the season against Marist College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Tip-off is scheduled for 2:00 p.m. from the McCann Center.
