Albany, NY - The 2018-19 season came to an end for Manhattan women's basketball Saturday, as the Jaspers fell to #3 Marist 65-51 in the quarterfinals of the MAAC Tournament.
Manhattan finishes the season 12-19, while putting together a .500 year in conference play (9-9) and tying for fourth in the MAAC. Marist moves on to face #2 Rider in the semifinals on Sunday.
Highlights:
- Courtney Warley (West Chester, PA / Bishop Shanahan), the reigning MAAC Defensive Player of the Year, finished Saturday's game with a double-double, scoring 10 points and pulling down 11 rebounds. Warley completes the year averaging 8.6 points per game and 9.1 rebounds. She added two assists, a steal and a block to her day.
- Lynette Taitt (Irvington, NJ / Bishop Loughlin) led the Jaspers on offense, scoring 14 points and handing out three assists. Taitt scored six of her points in the third quarter, and she added a team-high three assists and three steals.
- Freshman Kania Pollock (Queens, NY / The Mary Louis Academy) was the third Jasper to put in double-figures for Manhattan, shooting 40 percent from the field. Her four rebounds in the game came all on the defensive end.
- Battling 57.1 percent shooting by the Red Foxes in the first, the Jaspers found themselves down just five at the end of the opening period. Marist's Alana Gilmer went 6-6 from the floor in the first for 14 of Marist's points in the quarter.
- Manhattan held the Red Foxes to 33.3 percent shooting in the second, but the Js shot just 21.4 percent over the same 10 minutes, totaling eight points on 3-14 shooting and going 0-5 from three. Marist extended its lead to 10 at the half, up 32-22.
- The Red Foxes scored the first six points of the third quarter, extending their lead to 15 heading into the fourth. The Jaspers went 8-11 in the final 10 minutes, scoring 18 points, their highest-scoring quarter of the game. They also held the Red Foxes scoreless for nearly two minutes, going on a 7-0 run late in the fourth. But the previous deficit proved too large to overcome, as time expired before the Jaspers could cut the gap any closer.
- The Jaspers and Red Foxes broke even in the paint, with 28 points apiece, though Marist held an 8-4 advantage on second-chance points.
- The Red Foxes earned 14 points off Manhattan's 13 turnovers, while the Jaspers forced 11 miscues from Marist, converting them to 10 points.
- Marist held a slight 33-32 advantage on the boards, pulling down 24 defensive rebounds to Manhattan's 23.
Wrapping Up the Season:
- In addition to her season accolades, Warley ends this year with her name in the Manhattan women's basketball record books. Just the second player to earn Defensive Player of the Year honors, Warley finishes sixth on the program's single-season rebounding list with 282, including 162 defensive boards (eighth) and 120 offensive boards (third).
- Warley earned 55 blocks on the year for seventh place on that single-season list. Her 84 career blocks put her in sixth place in program history.
- Warley earned a team-high 64 steals on the season, or 2.1 per game.
- Taitt tallied a team-best 72 assists during the season, averaging 2.6 per game.
- In her freshman campaign, Sydney Watkins (Wanaque, NJ / Saddle River Day) hit a team-high 44 threes, shooting 31.7 percent from behind the arc.
- The Manhattan freshmen played more than 25 percent of the Jasper minutes this season, while nearly 70 percent was played by sophomores and freshman combined.
- In addition to Warley's DPOY honor, she was also an All-MAAC Third Team pick. Freshman D'yona Davis (Bronx, NY / Truman) earned All-Rookie honors, as well, the second-straight All-Rookie pick for Head Coach Heather Vulin (Warley in 2018).
- Warley's major postseason award is also a second-straight for Vulin: Gabby Cajou (Stony Point, NY / North Rockland) won Sixth Player of the Year in 2018, the first in program history.
