Manhattan Makes The Short Trek To St. Francis Brooklyn

* Turner scored career-high 32 points at in the victory at Detroit Mercy, including 10 in overtime, to go along with six assists. The Ball State transfer also had 30 against Saint Peter's and 28 at Temple.

* Turner ranks among the MAAC leaders in scoring (17.1 ppg-5th), free throw percentage (.912-3rd), assists (3.2 apg-10th), three-point percentage (.453-6th) and threes per game (2.2-10th).

* Freshman Aaron Walker Jr. scored 14 points off the bench with four assists and two steals against Florida State while Waterman added 12 points.

* Walker also had a solid all-around game at Morgan State, finishing up with 12 points, five assists, three rebounds and two steals. 

* The Brooklyn native earned MAAC Rookie of the Week honors earlier this year after averaging 12.3 ppg and 3.3 rpg over three games during the week ending November 20. Walker Jr., who scored a career-high 15 points with six rebounds against Winthrop, has now hit for double-figures six times and is third on the team in scoring at 8.8 ppg.

* Waterman scored a career-high matching 23 points, on 11-of-15 shooting, at Morgan State after notching his sixth double-digit rebounding performance of his career with 10 against Canisius. 

* The North Carolina native has started each of the last 38 games for Manhattan dating back to last year and ranks among the MAAC leaders in scoring (11.0 ppg-29th), rebounding (7.4 rpg-6th), field goal percentage (.523-6th) and three-point field goal percentage (.441-8th).

* Head Coach Steve Masiello picked up his 95th career win against Fordham while improving to 4-2, all-time, against the Rams.

* After Fordham started out 9-of-15 (.600) from the field, the Jaspers limited the visitors to just 8-of-39 (.205) the rest of the way.

* Manhattan's final field percentage defense number of 31.5 percent was its top performance since Canisius made good on just 31.1 percent on February 6, 2015.

* The Jaspers limited Fordham to just 53 points in moving to 36-4 in the Masiello era when holding teams to less than 60 points.

* Manhattan, which shot just 38.6 percent from the field, snapped a 12-game losing streak dating back to the 2014-2015 season when shooting less than 40 percent from the field.

* At halftime, Manhattan College President Dr. Brennan O'Donnell and Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Marianne Reilly honored Fr. George Hill, the College's longtime chaplain who passed away in September, as Father Hill's family was presented with a framed Jaspers' jersey.

* Masiello is keeping a seat behind the bench vacant all season in honor of Father Hill with Manhattan basketball players are wearing memorial patches on the left shoulder of their jerseys in his honor.

* Not to be overlooked in the win over Fordham was the play of Tyler Wilson as the senior converted the momentum-changing three-point play that gave the Jaspers the lead for good. No stranger to big-time plays, Wilson drew the game-clinching charge in the win at Detroit Mercy.

* Sophomore Thomas Capuano scored nine points against Florida State and is averaging 11.8 ppg, 2.3 apg and 2.0 spg over his last four games while shooting 48.6 percent (18-of-37) en route to raising his scoring average to 8.1 ppg. 

* At Morgan State, Capuano finished with a career-high 18 points to go along with five rebounds, four assists and four steals in 48 minutes of action before following that up with 10 points, four rebounds and three assists in the victory against Fordham.

* Junior Ahmed Ismail pulled down a game-high nine rebounds against Florida State after grabbing a career-high 11 rebounds in the win over Detroit Mercy and ranks among the MAAC leaders in rebounding (5.3-17th) and blocks (1.4-3rd).

* Freshman Na'Quan Council matched his career-high with nine points at Florida State and has hit the mark on three occasions.

* Junior Calvin Crawford scored a season-high 15 points at Morgan State before adding 12 points with seven rebounds and two blocks in the win over Fordham. He has now scored in double-figures three times in his last five games and is averaging 9.6 ppg with 4.4 rpg during that time while elevating his scoring average to 7.2 ppg.

* The Jaspers have won the rebounding battle in eight of their 11 games while ranking third in the MAAC in rebounding offense (37.8), rebounding defense (35.1), rebounding margin (+2.7) and offensive rebounding (13.0).

* Manhattan has notched at least 40 caroms five times this year, including pulling down a season-high 45 at Bucknell, including 19 offensive caroms. Both totals are the most by a Jasper team since the 2014-2015 season.

* Junior Zavier Peart has has scored double-figures in scoring three times this year and is averaging 5.1 ppg and 3.0 rpg while shooting 61.8 percent (21-of-34) from the floor.

* The Miami native earned his first collegiate starting nod at Florida State as Manhattan has now used seven different line-ups this year.

* In the win over Detroit Mercy, Manhattan went 9-for-12 from the line in overtime with Walker Jr. sinking two free throws to tie the game up with 0.7 seconds remaining in the first extra session.

* Junior Samson Usilo had a career-high nine points and seven rebounds at WVU while fellow Nigerian sophomore Ak Ojo scored a career-high nine points in the win at Detroit Mercy.

* In the final five minutes of games/overtime, Turner is averaging 4.1 ppg while shooting 61.9 percent (13-of-21) from the floor and 88.9 percent (16-of-18) from the line.

* Manhattan posted an impressive 24-0 advantage in second-chance points at Temple.

* Through the first 11 games, the seven Jasper newcomers are averaging a combined 42.5 ppg and 17.7 rpg while accounting for 59.0 percent of the team's offense and 46.9 percent of the rebounding.

* In an 80-68 win over Hofstra, Manhattan shot a blistering 53.7 percent (29-for-54) from the floor, including a perfect 100 percent (17-for-17) from the line, and scored on seven of the Pride's nine first-half turnovers, parlaying the miscues into 17 points.

* Setting the tone for the Jaspers was Peart, who scored 14 points in the opening half while connecting on all seven of his shots en route to finishing with a game-high 16

* Wilson handed out five assists, against just one turnover, against Hofstra while moving past RaShawn Stores into ninth place on the program's all-time assist list and now has 326.

* Tuesday's game against St. Francis Brooklyn is one of 11 non-conference games for Manhattan against 11 different conferences (ACC, American, Atlantic 10, Big South, Big 12, CAA, Horizon, MEAC, NEC, OVC, Patriot). The Jaspers will also play in six states: NY (5), PA (2), FL (1), MD (1), MI (1) and WV (1)

* Masiello has led Manhattan to a 95-79 (.546) record, including going 58-40 (.592) during MAAC play, 44-21 (.677) at Draddy Gymnasium and 14-9 (.609) in neutral games, over his six seasons with three MAAC Title Game appearances, three postseason berths, two Metropolitan Coach of the Year honors and two 20-win campaigns.

* He has participated in the NCAA Tournament in 13 of his 20 seasons as a player or coach, including being a part of eight conference champions and one National Championship.

* The Jaspers were slated to finish sixth in the annual preseason MAAC Coaches Poll with Williams earning All-MAAC Second Team honors.

* Williams and Wilson, the team's lone seniors, have helped Manhattan to a 60-48 record during their three-plus years with two MAAC titles, two trips to the NCAA Tournament and a MAAC-best 7-1 conference tourney record.

* Williams, who has missed the first seven games due to injury, averaged 14.8 ppg and a team-best 6.0 rpg last year, highlighted by seven 20-plus point performances and three double-doubles. Additionally, he raised both his scoring (+9.3 ppg) and rebounding (+4.5 rpg) numbers and took his game to another level at the MAAC Tournament, averaging a team-leading 21.0 ppg.

* The Jaspers boast five foreign-born players in R. Williams (Jamaica), Ismail (Egypt), Usilo (Nigeria), Ojo (Nigeria) and Oliver Ehrnvall (Sweden).

* Since returning to Riverdale, Masiello has led Manhattan to a pair of MAAC Titles as well as a pair of 20-plus win campaigns. In his first tenure, he was a part of two MAAC Championships and three 20-plus win seasons. All told, Masiello has been a member of four of the five Jaspers' MAAC Championship teams and five of the school's 12 20-win seasons in accruing a 178-115 record.

* In his 21st season as either a player or a coach, Masiello has a career collegiate record of 458-225, including 337-197 on the sidelines, with one National Title, two National Championship Game appearances, two Final Fours, six Elite Eight berths, eight conference championships, 13 NCAA Tournament appearances and 15 20-win seasons.

BROOKLYN WE GO HARD
Manhattan boasts three players (Usilo, Walker, Jr., R. Williams) that either hail from Brooklyn or played prep ball in the borough.

SCOUTING ST FRANCIS BROOKLYN
The Terriers are a guard-driven team led by the trio of Yunus Hopkinson (13.6 ppg, 3.0 apg), Glenn Sanabria (13.5 ppg, 2.9 apg) and Rasheem Dunn (12.6 ppg) with the threesome accounting for 61.7 percent of St. Francis Brooklyn's offensive output.

KEY MANHATTAN MATCH-UPS
1. Lock Down The Line: St. Francis Brooklyn is averaging 8.0 threes per game but shooting just 30.0 percent from long range. Manhattan will need to make the Terriers work for everything they get from long range.
2. Frontcourt Play: The Jaspers will need to take advantage of an inexperienced frontcourt and continue to pound the glass and attack the rim.
3. The Process: Manhattan played an outstanding game against Florida State by sticking to the game plan and not trying to do too much. The Jaspers will need to continue to play to that strategy against not only St. Francis Brooklyn but also against the remainder of their schedule.

TOUGH SCHEDULE
Included in Manhattan's 11-game schedule are six games (Temple (NCAA), WVU (NCAA), Bucknell (NIT), Florida State (NIT), Hofstra (NIT) and Fordham (CIT)) against teams that qualified for the postseason a year ago.

UP NEXT
Manhattan will host Eastern Kentucky on Thursday, December 22 with opening tip tabbed for 7:00 pm.