Jaspers Open Homestand With Loss to American

RIVERDALE, N.Y. – The Manhattan College women's basketball team began a school-record eight-game homestand on Wednesday night.  Manhattan (1-8) whittled a 14-point second-half deficit down to three with 2:16 remaining, but was unable to complete the comeback, as American (4-5) held on for a 60-52 victory at Draddy Gymnasium.

American led 53-39 with 5:42 left before Taylor Williams (Windsor, Conn.) drained a trey to start Manhattan's rally.  A conventional three-point play by Ashley Stec (Cazenovia, N.Y.) made it an eight-point game, then Kylla Champagne (Paterson, N.J.) hit a pair of free throws to get the Jaspers within six, 55-49.  After Manhattan forced an American turnover, Nyasha Irizarry (Brooklyn, N.Y.) nailed a three to cut the Eagles' advantage to 55-52 with 2:16 to go.

The Eagles missed a pair of shots on the ensuing possession, but Jen Dumiak then converted a steal into a coast-to-coast layup that made it 57-52 American at the 1:16 mark.  After Irizarry missed a layup, Arron Zimmerman sank a trey as the shot clock expired to put the Eagles up 60-52, and another Dumiak steal with 20 seconds left capped the victory for American.

“With 1:40 left, we're down three with the ball, and we had a chance to tie the game,” Head Coach John Olenowski said.  “Of course we didn't, but we battled and gave it everything we had tonight.  We fell a little short, but it wasn't for the effort.  That's for sure.”

An early 10-3 run gave American a 17-8 lead midway through the first half.  However, Manhattan rallied to tie it on three successive three-pointers, one by Irizarry and two by Williams.  After a Jordan Light free throw put the Eagles back in front, Irizarry sank another trey at the 4:32 mark to give the Jaspers a 20-18 lead.  Jacqui Thompson (Southampton, Pa.) hit a layup to make it 22-18 before a Maria Liddane three cut the margin to one, 22-21.  A layup by Mikki Guiton (Schwenksville, Pa.) brought the Manhattan advantage back to three points at 24-21, but Zimmerman hit a triple on the other side to even the score at 24-24 with 2:46 remaining before halftime.  Neither team would score again for the rest of the half, and the contest went into the break deadlocked at 24-24.

Kayla Grimme (Altoona, Pa.) sank a layup for the first basket of the second half to put the Jaspers back in front, 26-24.  However, Dumiak hit a trey on the other end to give the lead back to American.  Leading 31-30 with 15:35 remaining, the Eagles then went on a 22-9 run over the next 10 minutes to open up their 14-point, 53-39, cushion.

Irizarry paced the Jaspers with 12 points, and she added five rebounds.  Williams added 11 points, while Thompson had eight points and three assists.  Stec handed out a career-high six assists to go along with five points and five boards.  Champagne, meanwhile, posted six points and a team-high six rebounds.  Manhattan shot 35.4 percent (17-of-48) from the field, 47.1 percent (8-of-17) from three-point range, and 76.9 percent (10-of-13) at the free throw line.

“The outside shooting helped us out tremendously tonight,” Olenowski said.  “Nyasha and Taylor really stepped up and hit some key shots.”

Dumiak finished with 20 points, five rebounds, eight assists and six steals for American.  Michelle Holmes just missed a double-double with 12 points and nine rebounds, while Zimmerman tallied 11 points and six rebounds.  The Eagles shot 47.9 percent (23-of-48) from the floor and outrebounded the Jaspers 33-29.  American went 7-for-18 (38.9 percent) from downtown and 7-for-13 (53.8 percent) at the charity stripe.

Manhattan continues the homestand on Friday night, when Buffalo (5-3) comes to Draddy Gymnasium at 7 p.m.  The Jaspers have squared with the Bulls off only once in program history, and never in Riverdale.