Box Score
Box Score
RIVERDALE, N.Y. – The Manhattan College women's basketball team held a 13-point halftime lead against New Hampshire on Sunday afternoon. However, the Wildcats (8-3) chipped away throughout the second half, pulling ahead midway through the period, before holding on for a 58-54 victory over the Jaspers (1-10) at Draddy Gymnasium.
After both teams got off to a slow start offensively, an Ashley Stec (Cazenovia, N.Y.) jumper started a 7-0 Manhattan rally that gave the Jaspers an 8-3 lead with 15:16 left in the first half. New Hampshire pulled within one at 10-9 before Maeve Parahus (Congers, N.Y.) drained a trey to make it 13-9 Jaspers at the 12:12 mark. With Manhattan leading 19-16, a pair of Stec free throws started a 10-0 run that was capped by a Nyasha Irizarry (Brooklyn, N.Y.) three-pointer with 48 seconds remaining in the half, and the Jaspers took that 29-16 advantage into the locker room.
“That (the first half) was by far one of the best halves of basketball we've played this year,” Head Coach John Olenowski said. “We played really good defense, we did a really good job on the boards, and we executed the offense pretty well in the first half. I wish we'd had two halves like that, but we didn't sustain it unfortunately.”
New Hampshire trimmed the margin to nine early in the second half before Shayna Ericksen (Long Valley, N.J.) hit layups on back-to-back possessions to bring the lead back to 12 points, 33-21, with 17:14 to go. However, an Ariel Gaston steal and lay in started a 17-5 Wildcat rally, and her layup at the 7:33 mark gave New Hampshire a 40-38 lead.
Manhattan responded with a Parahus trey 17 seconds later, but the Wildcats regained the lead when Kristen Anderson's three-pointer made it 43-41 with 6:59 remaining. After the Jaspers tied it on a Stec layup, Anderson sank another long ball to put New Hampshire ahead 46-43 with 4:56 left. An Irizarry layup again got Manhattan within one, 46-45, before New Hampshire scored seven straight points to run its cushion to a game-high eight points, 54-46, at the 1:00 mark.
A Stec layup cut the Jaspers' deficit to six, then Kylla Champagne (Paterson, N.J.) went 3-for-4 at the free throw line to make it a 54-51 game with 26 seconds to play. Anderson was fouled immediately and hit both foul shots before Parahus nailed a three with 15 seconds left, bringing Manhattan within two at 56-54. However, the Jaspers were unable to get a steal on the ensuing New Hampshire possession, and Sarah Frankenberger converted two free throws to make it a two-possession game with eight seconds left. Parahus missed a three-pointer as time expired, wrapping up a 58-54 win for New Hampshire and a ninth straight loss for the Jaspers.
Irizarry led the Jaspers with 13 points, and she added a career-high six assists. Ericksen and Parahus tallied 11 points apiece, while Stec had eight points and seven rebounds. Champagne, meanwhile, finished with seven points and eight boards. Manhattan shot 34.5 percent (19-of-55) from the field, 31.3 percent (5-of-16) from downtown, and 78.6 percent (11-of-14) at the free throw line.
For New Hampshire, Gaston had 14 of her game-high 18 points in the second half. She also posted seven rebounds and three steals. Anderson tallied 13 points and six assists, while Elizabeth Belanger contributed 11 points and six rebounds. Kaylee Kilpatrick recorded six points, eight rebounds and four assists for the Wildcats, who shot 46.9 percent (23-of-49) from the floor and outrebounded the Jaspers 35-34. New Hampshire went 3-for-15 (20 percent) from long range and 9-for-16 (56.3 percent) at the charity stripe.
Sunday's contest was Manhattan's final non-conference game of the season. The Jaspers (0-2 MAAC) resume their Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) schedule on Friday, when Canisius (4-6, 2-0 MAAC) comes to Draddy Gymnasium for a 7 p.m. matchup. The Griffs notched a 55-44 victory when the teams met in Buffalo on Dec. 5.
NOTES: It was the first meeting between the schools since the 2011-12 season…New Hampshire won in Riverdale for the first time ever and now leads the all-time series 4-3…The Jaspers used their ninth different starting lineup of the season, and their sixth in as many games…Manhattan dropped its final home game of the calendar year for the first time since 2008…Irizarry had a career-high in assists for the second straight game…Champagne's eight rebounds matched a career-high…She previously had eight boards at Siena on Jan. 30, 2014…Manhattan's last nine-game losing streak was from Dec. 10, 2006-Jan. 16, 2007.
