The international student-athletes on the Manhattan University women’s basketball team on International Sports Day.
ISAIAH ROSARIO/ THE QUADRANGLE
Isaiah Rosario, Senior Writer
It was International Sports Day in Draddy Gymnasium for Manhattan University Women’s Basketball as the Lady Jaspers (13-13, 7–10 MAAC) took on the Canisius Griffins (7-20, 6–11 MAAC).
In the 2024-25 season, the Lady Jaspers have the third-most international players in NCAA DI. They have players from five international countries: Spain, Denmark, Croatia, Israel and Germany. MU only trails the University of South Florida (11) and UTEP (10) for international players.
“I like to play with international [players],” Jaspers guard Nitzan Amar said. “Of course, it’s a different basketball, but I don’t feel the difference between international and American players. We all play together, and I really like the chemistry of this team.”
A month away from the MAAC Tournament in Atlantic City, NJ, ahead of the matchup, the Jaspers sat at ninth place in the conference. After Friday’s contest, they currently remain in ninth place, and with their win against Canisius, will officially clinch their ticket to the MAAC Tournament.
It certainly has not been the season the Jaspers were looking for, as coming into the matchup, they had lost 4 of their 5 previous games. The Lady Jaspers looked to turn it around against the team that is right ahead of them in the MAAC standings.
“I feel like one of the things that we’ve been focusing on the second half the season is gratitude and being grateful for the opportunity to be a part of this team and to have the opportunity to come to practice every day, to get better and to get to play basketball with your best friends,” Vulin said about her pregame message to the players. “Even though the record isn’t where the Manhattan Jaspers expect it to be right now, all we can control are these games going forward and getting into playoff mode. We talked about [seeing] every game going forward now like a playoff game, and to try to prepare our minds and reps in that fashion.”
Early in the first quarter, both teams took advantage of the space in the interior as at the first media timeout, all of the Griffins’ points and 80% of the Jaspers’ points came from inside the paint.
Shots were flying for the Jaspers as they put up 18 shots at the end of the first, which tied their season high of shots in the first quarter. At the end of the first, the Jaspers led by three points.
At the second quarter media timeout, it was all Jaspers as they began the quarter on a 9-3 run backed by 4 unanswered points by Amar to extend the lead to nine. Their main success could be linked to forcing Canisius into nine turnovers and scoring 10 points off of those.
The Griffins committed the second most turnovers in the MAAC with about 24 turnovers per game, which was certainly something the Jaspers kept in mind, wanting to come out with a win.
“We haven’t had a lot of numbers for practice the last couple months, so we’ve kind of taken the press off a little bit, just because we’re trying to keep people healthy that are healthy, because we had so many people that haven’t been but it was really fun to have the press back,” Vulin said. “I’m a very aggressive coach, I love the press, and I just thought for us not playing it as much these last few weeks. I thought it looked really good, and I thought it really rattled them, and that was definitely part of our game plan.”
At the end of the second quarter, the Jaspers led by 19 points. The first half was some of the best basketball that the fans have seen from the Jaspers all season. They dominated on both the defensive and offensive ends.
The Jaspers forced the Griffins into 13 turnovers, and the Jasper bench almost outscored the entire Griffins offense. The leading scorer for the Jaspers at the half was Amar, who had 13 points. In the second quarter, the Jaspers outscored the Griffins by 16.
“We just played our basketball and what we’ve been practicing,” Amar said. “We put a lot of effort on our scout and our principal, and I think we showed it today.”
The offense picked up right where they left off to open up the second half. The second half began with a layup for the Griffs, until Manhattan’s Tegan Young went on an 8-0 run by herself with two three-pointers and a driving layup.
Young continued to rapidly gain points for the Jaspers as she had two points heading into halftime and had 12 points in the third quarter. Early in the season, Young came off the bench and now she will be critical for the Jaspers’ championship run in March.
“This team moves the ball really well, and we’re good enough that anybody can have an on night, and I was just making my shots tonight, but really, it can be anybody any night,” Young said.
After the first quarter, the Jaspers defense locked in. In the first quarter, the Jaspers allowed the Griffins to shoot 50%, and since that mark, the Griffins shot 33% in the second quarter and 20% in the second quarter. The Jaspers led by 30 at the end of the third.
The fourth quarter was running the motions as the lead remained in the thirties. Vulin kept her main rotation in place for the majority of the fourth quarter. At the under four-minute mark, Vulin took out all her starters as the win was out of reach for the Griffins.
The final score of the game was 71-35, with the Jaspers coming out on top. The leaders for the Jaspers were Young with 17 points, Petra Juric with seven rebounds, and Amar and Brianna Davis each with four assists.
The Jaspers’ defense was the story of the day as they held the Griffins to 33% shooting and shooting 5% from three. The Jaspers also dominated in the paint as they scored 40 inside and additionally were up 17 in points off turnovers.
With the win, the Jaspers officially clinched their ticket to Atlantic City. Their seeding remains unknown with three games left to play.
“I’m stoked,” Young said about the team clinching their ticket to MAACs. “This whole team is super excited. We’ve been preparing for this all year, and we just want to go to that tournament and show everybody what Manhattan is made of.”