Loudonville, N.Y. (December 7, 2007) ? The Lady Jaspers started off the MAAC regular season with a win at Siena College. Senior Caitlin Flood continued her hot streak as she notched a double-double scoring 19 points and grabbing 11 boards.
With the 2007-08 MAAC regular season set to start, Manhattan knew Siena was going to be a tough challenge. In the first half, it was a defensive struggle as the first bucket in the game didn't come until 16:48. Down 9-4, senior Gabrielle Cottrell hit one of her four three pointers to bring the game within two, 9-7. The game was held tight the rest of the way as both teams were really displaying their defensive strengths. The Lady J's still found themselves in a deficit as they were trailing 22-17 with just 1:31 left in the first half and knew they had to change that. Cottrell took a charge on Siena's Shondaya Burrell with 19.3 left and Flood scored the next four points for Manhattan as the Lady Jaspers went into the locker room down one, 22-21. Cottrell set the pace for the Manhattan offense as she had nine points in the first half off of 3-4 shooting from behind the arc.
The Lady Jaspers knew Siena was going to come out with a bang and they did just that as Manhattan trailed 37-32 with 13:34 remaining in the half. The Manhattan defense stepped up as that would be the last time Siena would score in the next 7:34 as Manhattan went on a 13-2 run during that time. Cottrell's three pointer with 10:39 left put the Lady Jaspers up two and the momentum was going Manhattan's way. The Lady J's extended their lead to as much as 10 points as they had Siena playing on their heels.
But the Saints were not going to go quietly, as they cut their deficit in half to go down 51-46 with under a minute to play. Siena's Burrell scored the last eight points for the Saints, but Manhattan held tough as they shot 6-7 as a team from the free throw line in the closing minute. But the deficit proved to be too much as Manhattan went on to take the victory 57-52.
Flood led all Lady Jasper's with her 19 point, 11 rebound performance. Cottrell was 4-6 from behind the arc as she contributed 14 points and seven boards, respectively. Manhattan played tight defense as they tallied 10 steals on the game, six of which came from Cottrell. Senior Joanna Nwafili scored eight points as she shot 4-7 from the field.
Manhattan improves their overall record to 5-3 and 1-1 in the MAAC. They will be in action on Sunday, December 9 as they will play their MAAC home opener against Saint Peter's College. The game is scheduled to start at 2:00 p.m.
