Box Score
POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. - The Manhattan men's basketball team dropped its second straight contest on Saturday falling 72-66 to Marist (1-11, 1-2 MAAC) at the McCann Center. Jaspers guard Rico Pickett led all scorers with a career-high 26 points on a 9-for-14 shooting effort, to go along with his seven rebounds. Senior Darryl Crawford added 17 points and grabbed six rebounds in Manhattan's (6-7, 1-2 MAAC) final contest of a demanding seven game road series.
The Jaspers fell into a rut shooting just 28% (7-25) in the first half, forcing the team to battle uphill the rest of the contest. While Manhattan posted just 21 points in the opening stanza, Marist used 11 points from freshman guard Candon Rusin to take an 11 point advantage into the break. Rusin was perfect from beyond the arc going 3-for-3 in the first 20 minutes, including the go-ahead trey at 15:28 which gave the Red Foxes a lead (5-4) they would not relinquish.
Manhattan fought to overcome a deficit which grew as large as 13 points early in the second half. The Jaspers eventually found their shooting touch, and were led by Pickett who scored seven of the team's first nine points of the second half. Crawford also was active in the scoring column posting 15 of his 17 points in the period.
The Jaspers improved to 46.7% (14-30) shooting in the second half and pulled within four points three times in the last minute, but could not capitalize on key opportunities to get any closer. Five Red Foxes delivered double-digit scoring efforts, most notably freshman forward Rob Johnson who helped ward off the Jaspers scoring all 10 of his points over 17 minutes of action in the second half.
Marist converted 50% (23-46) of its field goal attempts, and went 41.2% (7-17) from 3-point territory. Freshmen Devin Price and Sam Prescott led the Red Foxes with 13 points apiece. Prescott sank three 3-pointers in 19 minutes coming off the bench.
Defensively, Manhattan received a good effort from Patrick Bouli who reached season-highs with three steals and eight rebounds. In a reserve role, senior guard Antoine Pearson added eight points, four assists and three rebounds in 28 minutes. Classmate Brandon Adams finished with six points, four rebounds and three steals.
The Jaspers converted 22-of-30 (73.3%) free-throws and recorded 17 second chance points. Manhattan slightly edged Marist in the rebounding column (34-33), marking only the third time this season the team won the battle of the boards.
Manhattan looks to bounce back on Monday when the Jaspers return to Draddy Gymnasium after a 35 day road series. The Jaspers will host Rider at 7 p.m.
