Manhattan University Athletics

Riverdale, NY - Fresh off a MAAC-opening weekend sweep of Rider, Manhattan (2-1; 2-0 MAAC) will return home to host Quinnipiac (2-2; 0-0 MAAC) on Friday, December 18 at 6:00 pm and Saturday, December 19 at 7:00 pm.

How To Watch
Friday's game will be broadcast on ESPN3, and Saturday's on ESPN+.

Quick Hits
* Senior Courtney Warley was dominant against the Broncs, averaging 16.5 ppg, 11.0 rpg and 3.5 spg.
* Warley registered a double-double with 14 points and 13 rebounds in the second game, after scoring 19 points, thanks to a 13-for-16 performance from the line, with nine boards in the opener.
* The Keystone State native ranks among the MAAC leaders in scoring (13.7-6th), rebounding (11.3-1st), steals (2.7-2nd) and blocks (1.0-5th).
* In large part to Warley, Manhattan is first in the MAAC in scoring defense, yielding a scant 51.3 ppg, while making good on a league-best 78.0 percent from the line.

Last Weekend's Visual Recap



Cleaning Up The Glass
Led by Warley's MAAC-best 11.3 rebounds per game, including a league-best 8.0 on the defensive end, all five Jasper starters are averaging at least 4.0 rpg while ranking among the top-19 in the league.

Double-Digit Dee Dee
Junior Dee Dee Davis is the lone Jasper to register double-figures in points all three times out after missing all of last year. She is 10th in the MAAC in scoring with 12.3 ppg, while also ranking among the league leaders with 5.0 rpg (15th) and 2.3 spg (4th).

Filling It Up
Graduate student Gabby Cajou has done a little bit everything in the early part of the season. She dished out seven assists vs. Stony Brook, before scoring 10 points with six rebounds in the first win over Rider. Cajou then capped her solid week with eight points, five caroms and three steals in Saturday's victory over the Broncs. On the year, she is averaging 6.7 ppg, 4.7 rpg (18th MAAC), 3.3 apg (6th MAAC) and 1.7 spg (4th MAAC).

Leading The Way
Sophomore Emily LaPointe paced the team in scoring for the 15th time in her 32-game Jasper career with 16 points against Stony Brook, and is averaging 9.0 ppg and 5.3 rpg (13th MAAC).

Whatever It Takes
Graduate student Pamela Miceus scored six huge points in the Jaspers' second win over Rider, after snaring seven rebounds with four points, two assists, one block and one steal in the opener. On the year, she checks in with averages of 4.7 ppg and 4.0 rpg.

Balling From The Bench
* Sophomore Christina Katsamouri registered a career-high four points and four rebounds against Stony Brook, before adding a career-best steals in the finale at Rider On the year, she is averaging 2.0 ppg, 1.7 rpg, 1.6 spg over 11.9 mpg.
* Senior Sini Mäkelä averaged 4.5 ppg and 2.0 rpg over 23.0 mpg over the weekend at Rider.
* Freshman Nia Bailey made a huge impact in the second win at Rider, hitting a free throw, before assisting on back-to-back Warley buckets that sparked a game-ending 24-10 run.

Notable From Rider
* Warley registered her 15th career double-double and 34th  double-digit rebounding performance with 14 points and 13 rebounds in the finale.
* With her nine rebounds in the opener, she joined Kayla Grimme (2013-18) as the lone players in school history with 700 rebounds and 100 blocks.
* Manhattan outscored Rider 60-36 in the paint for the weekend, while posting a 22-11 advantage in fastbreak points.
* The Jaspers held the Broncs without a field goal in the second quarter of Saturday's victory.
* Heather Vulin became the sixth coach in program history to eclipse the 50-win plateau thanks to registering back-to-back victories.

Scouting Quinnipiac
The Bobcats enter with a 2-2 record, and have defeated Providence and Fordham, while dropping one-possession games to Villanova and Army West Point. Quinnipiac is led by the high-powered trio of junior Rose Caverly (14.0 ppg, 5.3 apg), sophomore Mikala Morris (11.8 ppg, 7.0 rpg) and junior Mackenzie DeWees (9.5 ppg, 10.0 rpg).

Last Year Against The Bobcats
Each team held serve at home, and were slated to square off in the rubber match in Atlantic City when play was halted due to Covid-19. Manhattan avenged a 12-point loss in Hamden, with a 77-62 victory at Draddy in the teams' last meeting, thanks to a career-high 15 points from Mäkelä. She went 4-5 from the field and 3-4 from three. For the year, Warley averaged 15.5 ppg, 11.0 rpg, 3.0 apg and 3.0 spg against Quinnipiac.

Double Your Pleasure
Warley is averaging a double-double (11.2 ppg, 10.6 rpg) against Quinnipiac in her career.

Milestone Tracker
* Warley has 713 career rebounds and with five more will match Sheila Tighe (1980-84) for eight place in the all-time program annals. 
* She is also fifth in program history with 112 blocks, 20 behind Eve Walters (1998-2003).
* Cajou has 305 career assists, and is 23 behind Michelle Pacheco (2006-10) for ninth place. 
* Miceus is tied with Tighe for ninth place (73) on the all-time blocks list, and with six more would match Brita Hinkle (1999-2001).

Preseason #1
Manhattan was selected as the MAAC Preseason No. 1 for the 2020-21 season. The Jaspers top the MAAC's preseason coaches poll for the first time in the modern era of the league. The no. 1 preseason ranking is also the Jaspers' highest since the 2002-03 season, when Manhattan was selected to finish second in the league. The Jaspers went on to win the MAAC Championship over Siena that season. 

Three's A Crowd
In addition to the team accolades, Warley and LaPointe were named to the Preseason All-MAAC First Team, while Cajou was tabbed to the Third Team.

Warley's World
Warley earned unanimous 2020-21 Preseason All-MAAC First Team honors, after averaging 11.6 ppg and 8.7 rpg, while shooting 48.6 percent from the field and nabbing 2.4 spg (38th in NCAA Division I) on her way to becoming just the eighth player in program history to earn MAAC First Team honors. 

2019-20 Recap
Manhattan finished the 2019-20 regular season 15-14 overall and 12-8 in conference play, tying for third place in the MAAC rankings, the program's best conference finish since 2011. The Jaspers went 6-1 down the stretch, winning their last five games of the season to secure a #4 seed and a first-round bye in the 2020 Hercules Tires MAAC Women's Basketball Championship.

Davis Returns
Davis, who sat out the 2019-20 season due to injury, returned to action with 15 points against Stony Brook. In her first year of action in 2018-19, Davis led the Jaspers with 8.9 ppg, shooting 40 percent from the floor and 33.9 percent from three-point range that year. 

DYK???
In each of the last two seasons, Vulin's recruiting classes paid immediate dividends as the Jaspers were paced in scoring each year by a freshman with Davis topping the charts in 2018-19 and LaPointe a year ago.

#playGREEN
The Jaspers' team motto "playGREEN" is a concept developed by Vulin. For the team, playGREEN is a commitment to the pursuit of excellence. Vulin expects her players to have that mindset every day, as they play for their teammates, for their program, and to represent Manhattan College at a championship level. The Jaspers use #playGREEN on all of the team's social media channels.

Head Coach Heather Vulin
Heather Vulin was named the eighth head coach in Manhattan College program history on April 25, 2016. A 1999 graduate of Minnesota-Morris, she earned nearly two decades of coaching experience before arriving in Riverdale. She began her career as a graduate assistant at North Dakota State from 2000-02, then spent six seasons as an assistant coach at Sacred Heart from 2002-08. Vulin was on the staff at Villanova for seven seasons (2008-15) before spending the 2015-16 campaign as assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Virginia Tech. She won her first game as a head coach against Holy Cross, defeating the Crusaders 60-56 on November 11, 2016 at home. She won her first MAAC game against Siena on December 30, 2016, when the Jaspers defeated the Saints 68-66 in Riverdale.

Vulin has continued to raise the standard for the women's basketball program since her arrival at Manhattan. She mentored Warley to the program's first MAAC First Team selection since 2011 and the program's second MAAC Defensive Player of the Year Award. In addition, she guided LaPointe to the unanimous 2019-20 MAAC Rookie of the Year award, and Cajou to the program's first MAAC Sixth Player of the Year award in 2018. The Jaspers have earned a spot in the MAAC quarterfinals for three-straight years, and the squad has moved from a 10th-place pick in the MAAC preseason poll in 2017 to first this season.

The Coaching Staff
Vulin's staff consists of Allie Bassetti, Callan Taylor, Rena Wakama and Kiambra Griffin. 

In her fifth season, Bassetti, serves as an assistant coach and the team's recruiting coordinator. She joined Vulin at Manhattan after serving as the director of basketball operations at American from 2013-16. Also in her fifth season and fourth as an assistant coach, Taylor was the 2011-12 NEC player of the year at Sacred Heart and played basketball professionally overseas before arriving in Riverdale. Wakama is in herfourth season with the Jaspers and her second as an assistant coach. A 2014 graduate of Western Carolina, she played professional basketball, making stops in the United Kingdom and the FIBA African Basketball League. 

Griffin joined the Jaspers last year as director of basketball operations. Prior to that, the 2018 Davidson grad was a graduate assistant at Columbia.

The Newcomers
Manhattan welcomes three freshman and one transfer for the 2019-20 season. 
* Jenna Jordan joins the squad from St. Francis Brooklyn, where she averaged 6.3 ppg, shooting 46.3 percent as a freshman.
* Bailey, who hails from New Rochelle, was named a 2019-20 Conference I All-Section selection, in addition to being named a Journal News/LoHud Girls Basketball Honorable Mention for Westchester and Putnam Counties. 
* Favour Mbeledeogu won the Pennsylvania District Three Class 2A championship as a member of the Linden Hall for Girls squad and also played for Raptors Academy (2016) and Deepbond Academy (2017). 
* Rounding out the newcomers, Emma Wilson-Saltos joins the team from the Bronx's Preston High School, and is the first player out of Preston to to play Division I basketball in 16 years.

United For Justice
Earlier this year, the MAAC launched its United for Justice campaign. For the 2020-21 season, the MAAC will work both internally at the conference office and with all 11 member institutions to advance and execute strategies to combat racial injustices within our society. The MAAC and its member institutions will work to address the long-standing history of systemic racism and inequality that minorities in this country have and still currently face, with a goal to educate those around us and to create substantial change in our communities. The MAAC basketball programs have united to focus their messaging platform for the upcoming season on Black Lives Matter. Specifically, the coaches will be showcasing the Black Lives Matter messaging on warm up shirts and uniform patches. 

What's A Jasper?
Manhattan is the only athletic program in Division I with the "Jaspers" nickname. The unique moniker honors one of Manhattan's most memorable figures, Brother Jasper of Mary, F.S.C. Brother Jasper served Manhattan College in the late 1800s and was the first coach of Manhattan's baseball team. He is also credited as the creator of the "seventh-inning stretch," which has become a time-honored tradition at ballparks across the country. During a game in the 1880s, Brother Jasper noticed students getting restless in the middle of the seventh inning of a close game, so he called timeout and told the students to stand up a stretch for a few minutes before resuming the game. Since Manhattan regularly played the New York Giants at the Polo Grounds in the 1880s and into the 1890s, the tradition spread into the major leagues.

AC Here We Come! 
The 2020-21 men's and women's MAAC Championships will take place March 9-13 in Atlantic City, NJ. The tournament will be held at Jim Whelan Boardwalk Hall.

Trend Setter
Manhattan Athletic Director Marianne Reilly was the Jaspers' first-ever scholarship women's basketball player. She was also the first player in program history to reach the 1,000-point plateau, finishing with 1,305 points, and was the first female inducted into the Manhattan College Athletic Hall of Fame.

Up Next
Manhattan will play at Rutgers on Wednesday, December 23 at 12:00 pm.