The seventh-seeded Manhattan College Jaspers (13-18; 9-9 MAAC) fell to the second-seeded Marist Red Foxes (19-12; 14-4 MAAC) by a score of 84-60 in the quarterfinals of the 2018 MAAC Tournament held at the Times Union Center in Albany, NY on Friday, Mar. 2.
The Red Foxes came storming out of the blocks with 10 unanswered points within the first two minutes and 10 seconds of the game.
While Marist held onto the lead for the remainder of the game, Manhattan took over the remainder of the first quarter. The Jaspers went on a 12-3 run until the 0:55 mark to get within a point of the Red Foxes. During that run, senior Amani Tatum connected on a jumper to score the 1,000th point of her college career.
From the last 55 seconds of the first quarter to the first four minutes and three seconds of the second quarter, Marist made it a 31-12 game with 18 unanswered points. Manhattan didn’t have any really powerful runs the rest of the half as they went into halftime trailing 41-29.
Senior Kayla Grimme, who put up 16 points in the opening round of the MAAC Tourney, led the team with nine points at halftime. However, she kicked it into an even higher gear in the second half.
Grimme added an additional eight points in a mere five minutes and one second to start the third quarter. While that was an impressive showing indeed, it only cut into Marist’s lead by a point. Marist then went on a 12-3 run to finish out the third and take a 62-42 lead.
There wasn’t much hope for Manhattan going into the fourth. A 20-point deficit with 10 minutes to go is hard to overcome for any basketball team.
Marist would not let up either as they were able to extend their lead to as large as 28 points at the 2:38 mark and again at the 2:07 mark. Tatum and senior Mikki Guiton would both add three points apiece the rest of the way before the game officially ended in a 84-60 Marist victory.
Grimme’s performance was quite a memorable one to end her playing career. She registered 25 points, five rebounds and two steals. She ends her career with 1,433 points and 961 rebounds which are good for fifth and third all-time at Manhattan, respectively.
The Red Foxes move onto the semifinals to play either Siena or Niagara on Sunday, Mar. 4 at 1:30 PM. The Jaspers’ season, on the other hand, comes to an end.
Although the Jaspers won’t be playing basketball until the 2018-2019 season starts up in November, there are plenty of positives to take away from this season.
It’s only the second time in six years that the Jaspers finished .500 or better in conference play and second time in five years where they have won a game in the MAAC Tourney.
Tatum joined Grimme as a member of the 1,000-point club and both athletes were named to All-MAAC Teams.
Freshman Courtney Warley and sophomore Gabby Cajou also brought home awards with the former being named to the MAAC’s All-Rookie Team and the latter being named MAAC Sixth Player of the Year. Cajou was the first member of the women’s basketball team to receive that honor in the history of the program.
While the 2017-2018 campaign is in the books, the team can hold their heads high knowing they exceeded the expectations of the preseason poll that slated them to finish tenth in the conference
Editor’s Note: Featured image courtesy of Go Jaspers.