Click here to purchase the 2010-11 Manhattan Women's Basketball Yearbook
RIVERDALE, N.Y. - For the Manhattan College women's basketball team, Senior Night went about as well as anybody could've hoped. Playing in her final home game, senior Abby Wentworth (Portland, Maine) tallied a team-high 18 points to lead the Lady Jaspers (20-8, 11-6 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference) to a 53-44 victory over Fairfield (17-11, 10-7 MAAC) at Draddy Gymnasium on Friday night. The win, which tied the school record for victories in a season, clinched the No. 3 seed in next weekend's MAAC Tournament for Manhattan.
"These are two tremendous kids," Head Coach John Olenowski said about Wentworth and fellow senior Alicia Marculitis (Worcester, Mass.). "They've meant everything to our program, and I'm so glad we could send them out with a W."
Manhattan took an early 5-3 lead on a Wentworth layup before Fairfield responded with back-to-back three-pointers. The Stags extended their advantage to seven points when a jumper by Katelyn Linney made it 21-14 with 8:14 remaining before halftime, but the Lady Jaspers used a 9-4 run to get back within two at 25-23 at the 1:33 mark. After a Taryn Johnson layup brought the Stags' lead back to four points, Lindsey Loutsenhizer (North Huntingdon, Pa.) hit a turnaround jumper as time expired to cut Manhattan's deficit to two, 27-25, at intermission.
Wentworth hit a jumper to tie it two minutes into the second half, and the Lady Jaspers took the lead, 30-29, on a Toni-Ann Lawrence (Elmont, N.Y.) jumper with 16:50 to go. That bucket sparked a 13-3 Manhattan rally over the next five minutes that put the Lady Jaspers in front 41-32 with 12:21 left. The lead reached 10 when Wentworth completed a three-point play to make it 44-34 at the 9:34 mark. Fairfield never got closer than eight the rest of the way, and Manhattan's lead reached a game-high 13 points at 53-40 on a pair of Wentworth free throws with 1:20 remaining.
With the 53-44 victory, the Lady Jaspers secured just the third 20-win season in the program's 33-year history. The 20 wins ties the mark set by the 1986-87 and 2002-03 teams, and also sets a new program standard for regular season victories.
"It means everything," Olenowski said about picking up the 20th win. "This team has worked so hard. They deserve everything they get, and I was so happy for our team tonight that they were able to pull out a great win."
Wentworth had six rebounds and four assists to go along with her 18 points. Loutsenhizer tallied 14 points and a team-high eight boards, while Monica Roeder (Marlton, N.J.) contributed 10 points and three assists. Lawrence notched seven points on 3-for-3 shooting and added six rebounds. Nadia Peters (Bronx, N.Y.) grabbed seven rebounds, as the Lady Jaspers outrebounded the Stags 36-32. Manhattan shot 37.7 percent (20-of-53) from the field, 33.3 percent (4-of-12) from downtown, and 75 percent (9-of-12) at the line.
Linney sank five three-pointers and finished with a game-high 23 points for Fairfield. Taryn Johnson added nine points, nine rebounds and three blocks, while Brittany MacFarlane grabbed six rebounds. As a team, the Stags shot 34 percent (16-of-47) from the field, including 43.8 percent (7-of-16) from three-point land, and 62.5 percent (5-of-8) at the charity stripe.
The win, coupled with Siena's 64-48 loss to No. 21 Marist, gave the Lady Jaspers the No. 3 seed for next weekend's MAAC Tournament, their highest since winning the title as the No. 1 seed in 2003.
"We finished fourth last year and we thought we were going to finish higher this year," Olenowski said. "That was our goal all season long. We used it as motivation, and I think it helped us. But getting the win tonight to secure the spot is very gratifying."
Manhattan wraps up the regular season on Sunday afternoon with the first of consecutive games against Iona (11-18, 7-10 MAAC). The Lady Jaspers and Gaels will meet at the Hynes Athletic Center at 1 p.m. on Sunday, then face each other in the quarterfinals of the MAAC Tournament next Friday at 11:30 a.m. Manhattan won the first meeting between the teams this season, 63-47 at Draddy Gymnasium on Feb. 14.
NOTES: Manhattan notched its fifth straight win over Fairfield and evened the all-time series at 36-36...Manhattan's other two 20-win seasons ended with trips to the NCAA Tournament...The Lady Jaspers won on Senior Night for the third straight year...Manhattan faced Fairfield in its final home game for the third time in four seasons...The Lady Jaspers won their final five home games and finished with a 10-5 record at Draddy Gymnasium in 2010-11...Manhattan held its opponent under 50 points for the 17th time this season...Wentworth now has 998 career points...Manhattan used its eighth different starting lineup of the season, with Marculitis making her first career start...Senior team manager Pat Waldron was also honored prior to the game.
To follow Manhattan Athletics on Twitter, go to twitter.com/GoJaspers or visit Manhattan's Facebook fan page.