Box Score
Box Score
RIVERDALE, NY – In her first start of the year, Taylor Williams (Windsor, CT) had the best performance of her career on Sunday afternoon. She erupted for a career-high 25 points to lead the Manhattan College women's basketball team (2-3) to a dominant 80-56 victory over Brown (5-1) at Draddy Gymnasium.
“I just let the game come to me today,” Williams said. “I saw they were leaving the baseline open a lot, and when they were leaving the three open, I shot it.”
Manhattan led nearly the entire way. Williams scored five points in the first four minutes of the game, as the Jaspers jumped out to an early 7-1 advantage. After Williams hit a layup to make it 14-6, Brown ended the first quarter on a 5-0 run to pull within three, 14-11.
An Amani Tatum (Cambria Heights, NY) jumper pushed the margin back to six points at 17-11 early in the second quarter before the Bears went on a 7-0 spurt to go up 18-17. Brown's lead would last all of seven seconds, however, as Williams sank a layup on the other end to spark an 18-5 rally that gave the Jaspers a 35-23 advantage at intermission.
After Manhattan pushed the margin to 15 points, 38-23, with 8:46 left in the third quarter, Brown responded with an 18-4 spurt to make it a one-point game, 42-41. Shayna Ericksen (Long Valley, NJ) followed with a layup to create a three-point separation, then, after a Blake Underhill (Edgewater, NJ) steal, a Williams three increased Manhattan's advantage to six points, 47-41, at the 1:59 mark. The Jaspers ended the period on a 12-2 run and took a 54-43 lead into the fourth quarter.
The Jaspers continued their onslaught in the fourth quarter. The lead reached 20 points at 65-45 on a pair of Kayla Grimme (Altoona, PA) free throws with 6:28 remaining, and the margin hit a game-high 29 points when Nicole Anderson (Hamden, CT) sank a layup to make it 80-51 at the 2:34 mark. Brown scored the final five points of the contest, but Manhattan snapped its three-game losing streak with an 80-56 triumph.
“That's the best we've run our offense,” Head Coach John Olenowski said. “If the first option wasn't quite there, we got the second or third option, and a lot of times we didn't even have to get into that. The efficiency on the offensive end was really good tonight.”
Williams also pulled down six boards, as the Jaspers nearly doubled-up the Bears in the rebounding category (60-32).
“We really did a great job on the boards,” Olenowski added. “That was our No. 1 goal coming in. A lot of those rebounds led to fast break points, and it also stopped their offense. So those were a lot of key rebounds on the defensive end.”
Tatum added 17 points, while Grimme tallied nine points, 11 rebounds and two blocks. Kylla Champagne (Paterson, NJ) finished with nine points and four assists, and Crystal Ross (Philadelphia, PA) collected 12 rebounds. Ericksen, meanwhile, contributed seven points and seven rebounds. The Jaspers shot 37.5 percent (30-of-80) from the field, 27.8 percent (5-of-18) from long range, and 62.5 percent (15-of-24) at the free throw line.
Erika Steeves led the Bears with 15 points and seven rebounds, and she also recorded three blocks. Rebecca Musgrove added 11 points, while Shayna Mehta registered nine points and six boards. Jordin Alexander distributed four assists to go along with six points. As a team, Brown shot 38.6 percent (22-of-57) from the floor, 20 percent (3-of-15) from downtown, and 60 percent (9-of-15) at the charity stripe.
On Tuesday night, the Jaspers visit Yale (4-3) at 7 p.m. for their second straight matchup against an Ivy League foe. It will be the first meeting between the programs since Dec. 5, 1987.
NOTES: It had been 15 years to the day since the Jaspers last faced Brown…Manhattan leads the all-time series 3-1…The Jaspers used a different starting lineup for the fourth straight game, with Williams and Maeve Parahus (Congers, NY) each making her first start of the season…Manhattan had the lead at halftime for the first time this season…Williams' previous career-high was 16 points, which she reached twice last season…She was the first Jasper with a 25-point game since Monica Roeder went for 27 at Army West Point on Nov. 20, 2013…Grimme and Ross both grabbed double-digit rebounds in the same game for the second time this season…The 60 rebounds were the Jaspers' most in a game since at least Jan. 19, 2003, when they grabbed 54 against Rider…With seven boards, Ericksen moved past Linda Bores into 13th place on Manhattan's all-time rebounding list…Courtney Hagaman (Toms River, NJ) made her collegiate debut in the contest.
