Box Score
WBI Bracket
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RIVERDALE, N.Y. - Playing in the first home postseason game in program history, the Manhattan College women's basketball team wasn't quite ready to shut the book on the 2010-11 season. The Lady Jaspers (23-9) raced to a 9-2 lead and never trailed en route to a 52-48 victory over Sacred Heart (18-13) at Draddy Gymnasium on Thursday night in the first round of the Women's Basketball Invitational (WBI). It was Manhattan's first postseason win since a 70-66 triumph over Fairfield in the 1983 ECAC Tournament, and their first-ever victory in a national postseason tournament.
Making their first postseason appearance since the 2003 NCAA Tournament, the Lady Jaspers got off to a quick start, as Monica Roeder (Marlton, N.J.) drained a pair of three-pointers in the first minute of the game. Another Roeder trey put Manhattan in front 9-2, then Maggie Blair (Briarcliff, N.Y.) hit one from the left wing that increased the Lady Jaspers' advantage to 16-5 at the 13:13 mark.
Roeder's fourth trey of the period made it 23-11 with 7:45 remaining before halftime, but Sacred Heart responded with a 9-2 rally that cut the margin to five, 25-20, with 3:30 left in the half. However, a Lindsey Loutsenhizer (North Huntingdon, Pa.) layup on the next Manhattan possession ignited a 9-0 spurt by the Lady Jaspers to end the half. Abby Wentworth (Portland, Maine) sank a triple with 27 seconds left in the half to make it a 14-point margin, 34-20, at intermission. Manhattan shot a scintillating 6-for-8 (75 percent) from three-point land in the first half, including Roeder's perfect 4-for-4.
Sacred Heart came storming out of the gates in the second half, outscoring Manhattan 15-2 over the first six minutes of the period to pull within one, 36-35. A Nadia Peters (Bronx, N.Y.) layup at the 12:28 mark started a 10-2 Manhattan run that brought the lead back to nine points at 46-37, but the Pioneers again charged back. A Maggie Cosgrove three-pointer with 5:06 left brought Sacred Heart within three at 48-45, then she banked in another trey from the left wing to knot the score at 48-48 at the 3:16 mark.
Manhattan held Sacred Heart scoreless the rest of the way, however, and the Lady Jaspers regained the lead on a pair of Wentworth free throws with 1:51 to play. Sacred Heart's Callan Taylor missed a jumper with 45 seconds left, and Wentworth grabbed the rebound. After a timeout, Manhattan let the shot clock run all the way down before Peters attempted a jumper with 14 seconds remaining. The shot was off the mark, but Loutsenhizer corralled the rebound and the Pioneers were forced to foul. She drained a pair of free throws to make it a two-possession game with eight seconds to go, and Sacred Hear was unable to get off a final shot.
"I was very proud of the girls," Head Coach John Olenowski said. "We kind of gutted it out in the second half. We had a very good first half, but we knew they (Sacred Heart) were a dangerous basketball team. And they came out on fire in the second half."
Roeder finished with 14 points, all in the first half, while Wentworth tallied 12 points, four rebounds, four assists and four steals. Loutsenhizer had eight points to go along with a career-high 14 rebounds. She also tallied three assists and two blocks. Peters posted seven points, five boards and four steals, and Blair recorded seven points, four assists and four steals off the bench. Manhattan outrebounded Sacred Heart 34-29 and collected 14 steals. The Lady Jaspers shot 35.2 percent (19-of-54) from the field, 46.7 percent (7-of-15) from downtown, and 100 percent (7-of-7) at the charity stripe.
Taylor had a game-high 18 points and eight rebounds for the Pioneers. She also handed out four assists. Cosgrove and Kiley Evans each added nine points, while Alexis Campbell tallied seven points. Evans also distributed three assists. Ericka Norman grabbed a team-high nine rebounds to go along with three assists. As a team, Sacred Heart shot 37.8 percent (17-of-45) from the field, including 36.4 percent (8-of-22) from three, and 85.7 percent (6-of-7) at the line.
With the victory, Manhattan moved into the WBI quarterfinals. The Lady Jaspers visit Wright State (20-12) the No. 1 seed in the East Region at 2 p.m. on Sunday. The Raiders advanced to the quarterfinals with an 82-79 victory over Buffalo on Wednesday night. The Manhattan-Wright State winner then takes on either UAB (17-15) or Elon (20-12) in the semifinals.
NOTES: Manhattan is now 3-6 all-time in postseason games...Despite being the No. 5 seed, the Lady Jaspers hosted the game because the fourth-seeded Pioneers had a schedule conflict in their home arena...Manhattan and Sacred Heart met for the third straight season, and the Lady Jaspers now lead the all-time series 2-1...The home team has won all three meetings between the schools...Thursday's game was Manhattan's 32nd of the season, the most in program history...Peters and Wentworth set a new program mark for games started in a season, while Lawrence and Loutsenhizer also established the new record for games played...Loutsenhizer's previous career-high was 13 rebounds at Rider on Feb. 13, 2009...Manhattan didn't miss a free throw for the first time since Feb. 15, 2008, when it went 9-for-9 at the line against Iona...Prior to the game, Wentworth was recognized for scoring her 1,000th career point on Feb. 27...Manhattan finished the season 11-5 at Draddy Gymnasium.
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