Riverdale, N.Y. (February 8, 2007)?Friday night at Draddy Gymnasium, the Lady Jaspers will welcome in third place Fairfield University for a MAAC contest. Winners in three of their last six games, the Lady Jaspers will be looking for a key MAAC win as the regular season begins to wind down. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:00 p.m.
Today's Game: The Lady Jaspers will be looking to sweep the season series from Fairfield for the second straight year, and even the all-time series against Fairfield when they welcome in the Stags to Draddy Gym tonight. Manhattan is 3-3 in its last six games, including a 74-61 win over Fairfield at Alumni Hall one week ago where the Lady Jaspers shot 56.6 percent from the field. In their last game, Manhattan dropped a 71-51 decision to Marist on Sunday, while the Stags rebounded with a 73-57 road win over Rider. Tonight's game is the 64th all-time meeting between the two programs, with Fairfield holding a slim 32-31 advantage, though Manhattan has won three in a row and eight of ten in the series.
Last Time Out: The Lady Jaspers had a rough go of it against Marist, as the Red Foxes continued their quest for a perfect MAAC season with a 71-51 win at Draddy Gymnasium. Marist had a big lead at halftime, but Manhattan outscored the Red Foxes 34-29 in the second half. Meg Dahlman led all scorers with 20 points, while Gabrielle Cottrell was Manhattan's high scorer with 13 points and was one of three Lady Jaspers to score in double figures.
On the Horizon: Following tonight's game, Manhattan will finish its three game home stand against St. Peter's on Sunday in a game to be televised on RNN. Next weekend, Manhattan concludes its regular season road schedule with a trip to Western New York to play Canisius and Niagara.
Nwafili Out For The Year: The Lady Jaspers suffered a tough blow on December 13th when the team learned that guard Joann Nwafili would be lost for the year with a torn ACL. The junior suffered the injury in the second half of Manhattan's 52-42 victory at Siena. Up to this point in the season, Nwafili was averaging 6.8 points per game and was second on team in rebounds per game with 4.8, while starting every game for the Green & White. The injury caused Nwafili to miss a game for the first time since her freshmen year.
Hurting Lady Jaspers: To compound Nwafili's injury, the Lady Jaspers have been bitten by the injury bug this season. Including her injury, which has forced her to miss 15 games so far, six other players have combined to miss 27 games due to a variety of aliments, bringing the total to 42 games with Nwafili's injury. Only four players have suited up for every game, Caitlin Flood, Kelly Regan, Gabrielle Cottrell, and Jenna Franciosa.
Scouting Fairfield: The Stags come into tonight's game second in the MAAC in scoring average, putting in 64.6 points a contest, while ranking sixth defensively, allowing 63.4 points a game. The Stags are middle of the pack in field goal percentage, shooting at a .404 percent clip, which is fourth in the MAAC. Fairfield also hits the glass hard, leading the conference with 39.9 rebounds per game. Individually, the Stags are led by Sabra Wrice and her 14.7 points per game, and Baendu Lowenthal's 11.0 ppg.
Series Facts: Manhattan swept last year's series against the Stags and with last week's win at Fairfield, the Lady Jaspers have won three in a row... Manhattan has won eight of ten going back to the 2002-03 season, winning those games by an average of 12.3 points... The Lady Jaspers are 4-1 at home against Fairfield in the last five games, with the average margin of victory being 7.2 points... The first ever meeting between the two teams took place during the 1978-79 season, which Manhattan won 68-57.
