Box Score
HAMDEN, Conn. – After trailing by six with 22 seconds remaining, the Manhattan College women's basketball team had the ball and a chance to tie at Quinnipiac on Sunday afternoon. However, a three-point attempt by Nicole Isaacs (Fair Haven, N.J.) at the buzzer was just off the mark, allowing the Bobcats (9-8, 4-3 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference) to come away with a 77-74 victory over the Jaspers (3-12, 2-4 MAAC) at the TD Bank Sports Center.
Quinnipiac took a 77-71 lead on a pair of free throws by Jasmine Martin at the 22-second mark. Manhattan then drove down and got a layup from Shayna Ericksen (Long Valley, N.J.), who was fouled on the play. After Ericksen sank the free throw to cut it to three, the Jaspers had to foul, and sent the Bobcats' Gillian Abshire to the line for a one-and-one. She missed the front end, though, and Allison Skrec (Roselle, N.J.) corralled the rebound for Manhattan. Despite not having any timeouts remaining, the Jaspers got a stoppage when the ball went out-of-bounds off a Quinnipiac hand with 3.6 seconds left. Manhattan inbounded from in front of its own bench, and Isaacs had a nice look from the top of the key as time expired. However, the shot hit the back of the rim and bounced out, giving the victory to the Bobcats.
“Nicole had a great look, and the team executed the play very nicely,” Head Coach John Olenowski said. “Not having a timeout made things a little more difficult, be we were still able to get the shot we wanted. Unfortunately, it just didn't go in.”
The finish was set up by a furious Manhattan comeback from 14 points down in the second half. After an Ellen Cannon three-pointer gave the Bobcats a 56-42 lead with 13:17 remaining, the Jaspers went on a 15-2 run over the next five minutes. Manhattan pulled within one at 58-57 on a Blake Underhill (Edgewater, N.J.) layup at the 8:22 mark before Quinnipiac responded with a 7-0 rally to push the margin back to eight points, 65-57.
An Underhill three-point play trimmed the Jaspers' deficit to five, and a jumper by Monica Roeder (Marlton, N.J.) pulled Manhattan within three at 65-62 with 5:02 left. Quinnipiac still led by three, 70-67, when Martin sank a trey at the 1:36 mark to make it 73-67. She added four free throws around layups by Underhill and Skrec to give the Bobcats a 77-71 advantage with 22 seconds remaining, setting up the final sequence.
Manhattan was on fire at the start of the game, racing out to a 9-2 lead barely two minutes in. The Jaspers extended their cushion to 24-12 on Underhill's steal and coast-to-coast layup with 11:57 left in the first half. However, Quinnipiac began cutting into the margin on a Martin trey at the 10:37 mark, and the Bobcats eventually went in front, 29-28, on a three-pointer by Morgan Manz with 3:45 remaining before halftime.
That lead would be short-lived, however, as an Isaacs hit a trey on the other end. Manz followed with a layup to tie it at 31-31, and it would be knotted again at 33-33 before Abshire sank a three with 31 seconds left in the period to give Quinnipiac a three-point advantage, 36-33, at halftime.
An Underhill layup made it a one-point game early in the second half, but the Bobcats got back-to-back three-pointers from Abshire and Samantha Guastella to spark a 12-0 run that put Quinnipiac up 50-37 with 15:32 remaining. The Jaspers scored the next five points to cut it to eight, 50-42, before treys by Martin and Cannon gave the Bobcats their largest lead of the game, 56-42, with 13:17 left.
“I was very proud of our effort today,” Olenowski said. “We had nice, balanced scoring and played very intense throughout the entire game. I think that this game will be a nice building block to get us where we need to go.”
Five different Jaspers scored in double-figures (accounting for all of Manhattan's points), led by a career-high 22 points from Underhill. Ericksen added 17 points and nine rebounds, while Roeder finished with 14 points and three steals. Isaacs tallied 11 points, and Skrec had 10 points and seven assists. The Jaspers shot 45.9 percent (28-of-61) from the field, 38.9 percent (7-of-18) from long range, and 68.8 percent (11-of-16) at the free throw line.
Martin paced the Bobcats with 22 points. Abshire tallied 13 points, seven assists and five rebounds, while Guastella recorded 12 points, eight assists, six boards and three blocks. Manz contributed 10 points and seven rebounds, and Brittany McQuain grabbed a team-high eight rebounds for the Bobcats, who outrebounded the Jaspers 47-31. Quinnipiac shot 40.8 percent (29-of-71) from the floor, including 33.3 percent (13-of-39) from downtown, and 85.7 percent (6-of-7) at the charity stripe.
The Jaspers continue their three-game road trip on Thursday, when they visit Rider (7-8, 3-3 MAAC) at 5 p.m.
NOTES: Manhattan and Quinnipiac met for the first time since the 2005-06 season and just the third time ever…The Bobcats lead the all-time series 3-0…Hamden native Nicole Anderson got the start, as Manhattan used its 10th different starting combination of the season…Four different Jaspers played at least 35 minutes in the contest…The 74 points were a season-high for Manhattan…The Jaspers lost despite scoring 70 points for the first time in Olenowski's tenure…Underhill's previous career-high was 12 points at VCU on Dec. 18…She had Manhattan's fourth 20-point effort of the season…Roeder passed Tiffany Schettig for 11th place on the Jaspers' all-time scoring list and is two points away from moving into the Top 10…She's also three three-pointers away from tying Brooke Renkens for second place all-time (215).