There was an odd parallelism between both the men’s basketball team and women’s basketball team this past week.
Last week, both the men and women’s team knocked off St. Peter’s at home. The men’s team won 64-49, while the women’s team won 58-31.
Oddly enough, both the men and women’s teams had their best defensive performances of the season. The men’s team gave up a season-low 49 points, and the women’s team gave up a season low 31 points.
The men and women’s teams both had three players score in double digits, and both beat St. Peter’s after losing the game before. The women’s team lost to Rider, and the men’s team lost to Iona.
After St. Peter’s, the men’s basketball team traveled to play first place Canisius (at the time) and the women’s basketball team faced first place Iona.
This is where the similarities stopped.
The men’s team (10-4 MAAC, 17-6) defeated Canisius 84-73, while the women’s team (5-9 MAAC, 6-17) nearly pulled off the upset against Iona (13-1 MAAC, 20-3). They lost 71-67, but women’s Head Coach John Olenowski was pleased with his team’s effort.
The Gaels were up by 10 points midway through the second half, but the Lady Jaspers rallied back, and came within two points in the final minute after six straight points by Shayna Erickson.
The Lady Jaspers never led in the second half, but Olenowski took notice in his team’s courageous effort against the MAAC’s best team.
“That’s about the best I can ask for from our team,” he said to gojaspers.com. “I’m extremely proud of our effort. That’s what we were looking for today.”
The men’s team, on the other hand, has now won the first two games of its road trip, and need only to defeat Rider to complete the road trip and become the first Manhattan team since January 2007 to win all three games of a road trip.
The men’s team didn’t do a fantastic job containing Niagara’s Billy Baron, (22 points, seven rebounds, seven assists) but they did enough to win after jumping out to a 17-3 lead in the first eight minutes.
“I thought it was two very good basketball teams who came out and played tonight on a very high level,” Masiello said in the postgame press conference after the Canisius win, “just a total team effort from Manhattan to come in here and get a road win on a very tough Buffalo road trip.”
The men’s team then defeated Niagara despite Antoine Mason’s 33 points – the most scored against the Jaspers all season – thanks to a game winning block by Rhamel Brown in the final seconds.
| MAAC Men’s Standings | |
| Iona | 12-2 |
| Manhattan | 10-4 |
| Canisius | 10-4 |
| Quinnipiac | 9-4 |
| Rider | 8-6 |
| Siena | 6-7 |
| Marist | 6-7 |
| St. Peter’s | 5-9 |
| Monmouth | 4-10 |
| Niagara | 3-11 |
| Fairfield | 2-11 |
Rayvon Harris drove the length of the court, got to the rim, went up for the layup, but was swatted away by Brown to end the game. Brown now has three game-winning or game-saving blocks this season (La Salle, Buffalo, Niagara).
| MAAC Women’s Standings | |
| Iona | 13-1 |
| Marist | 12-2 |
| Fairfield | 10-4 |
| Quinnipiac | 10-4 |
| Rider | 8-6 |
| Canisius | 5-9 |
| Niagara | 5-9 |
| Manhattan | 5-9 |
| Monmouth | 5-9 |
| Siena | 2-12 |
| St. Peter’s | 2-12 |