Box Score
FAIRFIELD, Conn. - The Manhattan College women's basketball team came into Saturday afternoon's game knowing that one of two early-season trends was bound to end. Either the Lady Jaspers would pick up their first road win of the season, or Manhattan would suffer back-to-back defeats for the first time in 2009-10. Unfortunately for the Lady Jaspers (2-3), it was the latter trend that stopped, as Sacred Heart (3-2) posted a 64-45 victory at the Pitt Center.
Sacred Heart quickly jumped out to a 12-5 lead before the Lady Jaspers responded with three layups in less than a minute to cut the Pioneers' lead to one, 12-11. However, Alisa Apo hit a three on the other end to bring Sacred Heart's advantage back to four points, 15-11, with 13:52 remaining in the first half. Lindsey Loutsenhizer (North Huntingdon, Pa.) followed with a layup and a pair of free throws to tie the game at 15-15, but the Pioneers got back-to-back three-pointers from Maggie Cosgrove and Apo to spark an 8-0 run that brought their lead back to 23-15 with 7:11 left in the half.
Manhattan again chipped away, cutting its deficit to two when Alyssa Herrington's (Cambridge, N.Y.) three-pointer made it 25-23 in favor of the Pioneers with 3:56 remaining before halftime, but Sacred Heart again used consecutive treys, this time by Cosgrove and Kiley Evans, to bring its lead back to eight, 31-23, with 1:28 left. Sacred Heart held that eight-point lead, 33-25, at intermission.
The Pioneers scored the first five points of the second half to increase their advantage to 38-25 before the Lady Jaspers rallied for the next five to again cut it to eight, 38-30. Manhattan pulled within seven on a Michelle Pacheco (Bronx, N.Y.) trey that made it 42-35 with 11:31 remaining, but the Lady Jaspers scored just three points over the next 5:30, allowing Sacred Heart to increase its lead to 54-38. Manhattan broke its scoring drought on a Herrington three-pointer at the 5:38 mark, but that was the Lady Jaspers' final field goal of the contest. As a team, Manhattan made just six field goals and shot 23.1 percent (6-of-26) in the second half. Sacred Heart's lead reached a game-high 21 points at 64-43 with 1:59 left, and the Pioneers notched a 19-point, 64-45, victory.
Loutsenhizer led the Lady Jaspers in scoring for the second straight contest, posting a game-high 17 points. She was the only Manhattan player in double figures, as Nadia Peters (Bronx, N.Y.) and Herrington each finished with seven points. Pacheco tallied six points to go along with six rebounds, four assists, three steals and two blocks. Toni-Ann Lawrence (Elmont, N.Y.) grabbed a team-high seven rebounds and Abby Wentworth (Portland, Maine) set a career-high with six steals. As a team, the Lady Jaspers shot just 30.2 percent (16-of-53) from the field and 20 percent (3-of-15) from downtown. Manhattan shot 71.4 percent (10-of-14) at the free throw line.
Apo, who scored her 1,000th career point in the game, paced the Pioneers with 15 points. She also handed out nine assists and added three steals. Callan Taylor had a double-double with 14 points and 12 rebounds, as Sacred Heart outrebounded Manhattan 36-34. Cosgrove also finished with 14 points and distributed four assists, while Evans tallied 13 points and four assists. As a team, Sacred Heart had 21 assists on 23 made field goals. The Pioneers shot 45.1 percent (23-of-51) from the field, 50 percent (11-of-22) from three-point range, and 70 percent (7-of-10) at the charity stripe.
Manhattan returns home for the only time in a five-game stretch on Tuesday night, when Elon (2-2) comes to Draddy Gymnasium for a 7 p.m. contest. It will be the first all-time meeting between the Lady Jaspers and Phoenix.
NOTES: It was the second all-time meeting between the schools...Manhattan posted a 68-62 victory when the squads met last season at Draddy Gymnasium...The last time the Lady Jaspers suffered consecutive defeats was on Feb. 19-23, 2009, when they lost to Marist and Saint Peter's...The 45 points is Manhattan's lowest total since scoring 44 in a 70-44 loss at Marist on Jan. 30, 2009...Sacred Heart's 11 treys are the most by a Manhattan opponent since Marist had 11 in a 91-82 win on Feb. 19, 2009...At least three Lady Jaspers had reached double figures in points in each of the first four games...The last time Manhattan had only one double-digit scorer was on Jan. 25, 2009, when Herrington had 17 in a 70-51 loss at Fairfield... Wentworth had tied her previous career-high of four steals less than three minutes into the game...This was the second of five games the Lady Jaspers play this year against teams that qualified for the 2009 NCAA Tournament.
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