RIVERDALE, N.Y. – The Manhattan women's basketball suffered a home setback to Niagara tonight with only six healthy players overall.
Manhattan falls to 15-6 overall and 8-4 in league play, while the Purple Eagles move to 12-11 and 9-4 in the MAAC.
"Tough home loss, but truly proud of how our team battled with limited personnel and players playing out of position. I thought, Senior Captain, Leyla had another outstanding game," said head coach Heather Vulin.
A slow start offensively doomed the Jaspers, with the team only mustering 16 points in the first quarter. However, they were able to drop 20 in the second putting them down by six at the half with the score being 42-36 in the Purple Eagles' favor. The Jaspers were unable to overcome that slow start in the second half.
As the game pushed on, the Purple Eagles' lead only grew as one of Manhattan's six healthy players got hurt, putting them down to five. The Purple Eagles reached a maximum lead of 26 points over the Jaspers before the final buzzer went off at 88-63.
Despite the slow start and a team lacking many starting players, Leyla Ozturk and Narrie Dodson were both able to drop 13 points for the Jaspers. Ozturk also pulled down nine rebounds and shut down three Purple Eagle shots.
Manhattan travels over to the Garden State this weekend to take on Rider on Saturday Feb, 10. at 2:00 PM in Lawrenceville, N.J.