Jaspers Halt Skid With 55-52 Triumph Over Rider

RIVERDALE, N.Y. – On Sunday afternoon at Draddy Gymnasium, the Manhattan College women's basketball team (2-11, 1-3 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference) rallied back from a 12-point halftime deficit to post a 55-52 victory over Rider (3-11, 0-4 MAAC) and snap its 10-game losing streak.

“It feels great,” Head Coach John Olenowski said about the win.  “We needed it.  We talked about it, but it was time we went out and got it.  I'm very proud of this team right now.”

Rider led 31-19 at the break, but Manhattan started the second half on an 11-0 rally to pull within one.  The Broncs pushed their advantage back to five points at 37-32 before a pair of Shayna Ericksen (Long Valley, N.J.) buckets again cut the Jaspers' deficit to one, 37-36, with 11:06 remaining.  After a Manon Pellet jumper put Rider back up three, 39-36, Taylor Williams (Windsor, Conn.) sank a trey to knot the score at 39-39 with 9:42 remaining.

That trey started a 9-0 Manhattan rally where the Jaspers scored seven points at the free throw line.  Nyasha Irizarry (Brooklyn, N.Y.) was fouled on a three-pointer and made all three foul shots to give the Jaspers the lead, then an offensive rebound and putback by Kayla Grimme (Altoona, Pa.) put Manhattan up 44-39.  She added a pair of free throws on the next Manhattan possession, and two more foul shots by Irizarry capped the run.

The Broncs stormed back, though, scoring the next eight points to get within one.  Blake Underhill (Edgewater, N.J.) responded with a jumper at the 1:47 mark that pushed the margin back to three points, 50-47.  Rider again pulled within one on a Lashay Banks layup with 1:03 remaining.  Banks was fouled on the play and had a chance to tie it at the line, but she missed the free throw and Irizarry grabbed the rebound.  Manhattan ran the clock all the way down before Irizarry was fouled.  After she made the front end of a one-and-one, the second was off the mark, and Emily Fazzini pulled down the rebound for Rider with 34 seconds to go.  The Broncs went for the three to take the lead, but Kamila Hoskova's attempt was off the mark and Williams secured the rebound.

After a pair of Irizarry free throws gave Manhattan a 53-49 lead with 17 seconds left, Fazzini hit a three-pointer for Rider to make it a one-point game, 53-52, with seven seconds to go.  Each team used a timeout, then Ericksen was fouled on the inbounds play.  She drained them both to run the margin to three points, 55-52, with 2.7 seconds remaining.  Rider quickly pushed the ball up the floor at Fazzini got a decent look at the game-tying three, but it clanged off the side rim as the buzzer sounded, preserving the Jaspers' first victory since Nov. 16.

“The final minutes were very chaotic,” Olenowski said.  “I'm just glad that we were in that kind of a position.  The key to getting in that position down the stretch was, in the second half, we took it possession by possession and played really great defense.”

Both teams got off to a good start offensively in the first half, as Manhattan made four of its first five shots to take an early 9-4 lead.  The Jaspers held an 11-9 advantage at the first media timeout, which came at the 15:43 mark, but a Taylor Wentzel three-pointer gave Rider the lead, 12-11, and started a 7-0 Broncs run that made it a five-point game, 16-11.  After Consecutive Underhill layups brought the Jaspers back within one at 16-15 with 7:47 to go before halftime, Rider ended the half on a 15-4 run to take a 31-19 advantage into the locker room.

“One of the things we kept talking about (at halftime), was that even if we got down, we had to stay positive and believe in each other,” Olenowski said.  “Today we did that.  We did a great job, and it was a great victory.”

Irizarry went 8-for-10 at the free throw line and finished with a game-high 15 points.  Ericksen had 13 points and six rebounds, while Underhill tallied eight points and four assists.  Grimme returned to the lineup and ended up just shy of a double-double with seven points and nine boards.  She also registered two blocks, and Kylla Champagne (Paterson, N.J.) contributed a career-best three blocks.  Williams, meanwhile, tied a career-high by grabbing eight rebounds for the Jaspers, who shot 38.6 percent (17-of-44) from the field.  Manhattan was 3-for-12 (25 percent) from long range and 18-for-22 (81.8 percent) at the charity stripe.

Fazzini led Rider with 13 points and seven rebounds.  Julia Duggan added 10 points, five rebounds and four steals, while Hoskova finished with nine points and six rebounds off the bench.  Wentzel contributed seven points and four assists, and Banks notched seven points and seven boards, as the Broncs outrebounded the Jaspers 34-33.  Rider shot 36.4 percent (20-of-55) from the floor, 41.2 percent (7-of-17) from downtown, and 35.7 percent (5-of-14) at the foul line.

Manhattan's eight-game homestand continues on Friday, when Iona (6-7, 3-1 MAAC) visits Draddy Gymnasium at 7 p.m.  The Gaels swept the season series en route to earning a share of the MAAC regular season title in 2013-14 and have won four straight against the Jaspers overall.