Box Score
ALBANY, N.Y. ? The Manhattan men's basketball team fell to Fairfield (17-14) 68-61 in the quarterfinals of the 2009 MAAC Men's Basketball Championships on Saturday at the Times Union Center in Albany. Jaspers junior guard Darryl Crawford led all players with 21 points, while teammate Chris Smith added 14 to the effort. Manhattan finishes the campaign 16-14 overall marking the Japers' first winning season in the last three years.
Trailing 25-24 at the half, Manhattan exploded out of the break as the team rallied off a 10-0 run beginning with Crawford's jumper 10 seconds in and capped by Andrew Gabriel's put back with 17:07 on the clock. The surge gave Manhattan a nine point edge, its largest lead of the contest.
“At halftime we went over a few things and wanted to get out of the gate well, which we did,” stated third year head coach Barry Rohrssen.
Gabriel scored seven points and grabbed seven rebounds over 32 minutes of work. Front court senior teammate Herve Banogle gave the Jaspers four points and two rebounds as he closed out his two year career.
Fairfield mounted its comeback behind Greg Nero who scored eight of the Stags first 12 points of the second half. Nero, a junior forward, scored all his 11 points in the second stanza, giving Fairfield a lift off the bench in his first game back after missing the final five contests of the regular-season due to injury.
Nero capped his scoring streak when he converted a three point play to regain Fairfield's advantage (37-36), a lead it would not relinquish. Nero was joined in double figure scoring by Mike Evanovich (18), Herbie Allen (17) and Yorel Hawkins (12). He was 4-for-8 from the field and grabbed four rebounds.
Manhattan saw its deficit build to eight points midway through second half, but had one last run left in the tank. Junior point guard Patrick Bouli buried his third 3-pointer of the contest in front of the Jaspers' bench with 2:42 remaining to fuel the final effort.
Just over one minute later, Smith finished a difficult lay-up through traffic to make it a one possession contest (59-56). The Jaspers had an attempt to tie the game after gathering an offensive rebound on a missed free-throw, but Smith's 3-point attempt with 1:31 remaining was just off the mark.
Evanovich made a two handed dunk on the Stags' ensuing possession, and then Fairfield sank 7-of-10 free-throws down the stretch to advance to the semifinals. Hawkins, a sophomore forward, tallied a double-double for Fairfield posting 12 points and 11 rebounds.
Manhattan senior Devon Austin scored five points off the bench in his final game as a Jasper. Austin finished his career 19th on the Manhattan scoring list with 1,177 points over his four years in Riverdale.
