2012-13 Manhattan Women's Basketball Yearbook
NIAGARA UNIVERSITY, N.Y. - With her team leading by three and 17 seconds left, Niagara's Lauren Gatto got an offensive rebound and put back to clinch a 48-43 victory for the host Purple Eagles (14-13, 9-7 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference) over the Manhattan College women's basketball team (6-21, 3-13 MAAC) at the Gallagher Center on Sunday afternoon.
After the Purple Eagles took a 46-41 advantage on a pair of Kelly Van Leeuwen free throws with 57 seconds left, Monica Roeder (Marlton, N.J.) hit a jumper six seconds later to bring the Jaspers within three, 46-43. Manhattan Head Coach John Olenowski then used his final timeout to set his defense, but Niagara ran the shot clock all the way down, and Gatto laid in the rebound after a Kayla Stroman miss to once again make it a five-point game with 15 seconds remaining. Manhattan hurried the ball up the floor, but turned it over, sealing the win for Niagara.
The Jaspers began the game on fire, quickly jumping out to a 10-0 lead after just 4:33 of play. Niagara pulled within 12-5 at the 13:29 mark, but Shayna Ericksen (Hackettstown, N.J.) followed with back-to-back buckets to give Manhattan its largest lead of the game, 16-5, with 12:25 left in the first half.
However, Niagara slowly chipped away, going on a 13-2 run to turn a 20-10 deficit into a 23-22 lead. The Jaspers immediately countered, getting a layup from Toni-Ann Lawrence (Elmont, N.Y.) to regain the lead, 24-23. After a Shy Britton jumper put Niagara back in front, the lead changed hands again on Allison Skrec's (Roselle, N.J.) jumper with 40 seconds to go in the half, and the Jaspers took that 25-24 advantage into the locker room.
The second half was scoreless for nearly three minutes until a Roeder layup increased Manhattan's lead to three points, 28-25. Niagara responded with a 7-0 rally to take a four-point edge, 32-28, before Roeder countered with a pair of treys to put the Jaspers back in front, 34-32, with 12:32 remaining. The Purple Eagles again rallied, going on an 8-2 spurt to go up 40-36 before layups by Lawrence and Roeder forced a 40-40 deadlock.
Niagara regained the lead on a Britton layup, then Skrec hit a free throw to make it a one-point game. Britton hit a pair of free throws at the 4:02 mark to increase the Purple Eagles' cushion to three points, 44-41, and it would stay that way until Van Leeuwen's foul shouts with under a minute remaining.
Roeder led the Jaspers with 14 points. She also registered five assists and five steals. Skrec contributed 11 points, five assists and five steals, while Ericksen added 10 points. Lawrence played all 40 minutes, grabbing a team-high six rebounds to go along with four assists and two blocks. As a team, the Jaspers shot 42.2 percent (19-of-45) from the field, 50 percent (2-of-4) from three-point land, and 75 percent (3-of-4) at the charity stripe.
Meghan McGuinness sank six three-pointers and finished with a game-high 20 points for the Purple Eagles. Britton added 14 points and eight rebounds, as Niagara outrebounded Manhattan 30-26. Stroman dished out four assists while also collecting three steals. Niagara shot 34.9 percent (15-of-43) from the field, including 43.8 percent (7-of-16) from downtown, and 73.3 percent (11-of-15) at the line.
After playing four straight on the road, Manhattan's final two regular season games will be at Draddy Gymnasium, starting with a 7 p.m. matchup against Iona (16-11, 11-5 MAAC) on Thursday. It will be the Jaspers' "Play 4 Kay" game for breast cancer awareness, and all fans are encouraged to come to the contest wearing pink.
NOTES: Niagara knocked off Manhattan for the third straight time and evened the all-time series at 24-24...This was the first meeting of the season between the teams, marking the latest the Jaspers opened the season series with a MAAC opponent since Manhattan played two of its last three regular season games against Fairfield in 1995-96...Ericksen reached double-figures in the scoring column for the first time since Jan. 20...Roeder's five assists and five steals both matched her career-highs...Lawrence played all 40 minutes for the first time in her career...Manhattan used a different starting lineup for the fourth straight game...The four three-point attempts were a season-low for the Jaspers...Manhattan lost despite leading at halftime for just the second time this season.