Box Score
Click here to view the 2010-11 Manhattan Women's Basketball Media Guide
ITHACA, N.Y. - Last season, the Manhattan College women's basketball team lost to Cornell right before Christmas break. On Tuesday night, the Lady Jaspers made sure that wouldn't happen again. Manhattan (7-3) scored the first five points of the game and led from start to finish in a 73-45 victory over the Big Red (1-8) at Newman Arena. The win was the Lady Jaspers' sixth in their last seven games.
A three-pointer by Alyssa Herrington (Cambridge, N.Y.) opened the scoring, then Abby Wentworth (Portland, Maine) hit a jumper to give Manhattan a quick 5-0 lead. Cornell got it to 8-4 before a 12-0 Manhattan run increased the Lady Jaspers' advantage to 20-4 at the 12:11 mark. After a Clare Fitzpatrick put back made it 26-9 in favor of Manhattan, a Wentworth trey on the other end ignited a 13-0 run that pushed the Lady Jaspers' lead to 30 points, 39-9, with 2:36 left before halftime. Manhattan shot 57.1 percent (16-of-28) from the field, including a scorching 72.7 percent (8-of-11) from three-point land, in the first half and led 41-14 at intermission.
Cornell came out hot in the second half, outscoring the Lady Jaspers 19-9 over the first 7:23 of the period to get back within 17 at 50-33. Herrington responded with a three on Manhattan's next possession, but the Big Red kept coming, trimming their deficit to 16 when Taylor Flynn's free throw made it 56-40 with 7:34 remaining. However, Cornell would pull no closer. A pair of Lindsey Loutsenhizer (North Huntingdon, Pa.) foul shots started a 6-0 Manhattan rally over the next 1:41, and the Lady Jaspers outscored the Big Red 17-5 the rest of the way to finish off the 73-45 victory.
"Tonight was a great team effort," Head Coach John Olenowski said. "Our game plan was to jump on them early in the first half with good pressuer defense and balanced scoring. I thought we executed the game plan really well in the first half, and we had a lot of good contributions from multiple players."
Wentworth notched a season-high 22 points to lead the Lady Jaspers. She also had four rebounds, four assists and three steals. Herrington drained four three-pointers and posted 13 points before fouling out. Schyanne Halfkenny (Hyde Park, Mass.) tallied eight points, and Loutsenhizer grabbed a team-high seven rebounds to go along with seven points. Monica Roeder (Marlton, N.J.) also chipped in seven points, while Nadia Peters (Bronx, N.Y.) finished with six points, five rebounds, four assists and three steals. As a team, the Lady Jaspers had 16 assists and committed just 13 turnovers. Manhattan shot a season-high 47.1 percent (24-of-51) from the field and tied a season-best by shooting 57.1 percent (12-of-21) from beyond the arc. The Lady Jaspers shot 76.5 percent (13-of-17) at the free throw line.
"Abby was again our leader," Olenowski said. "She scored for us and played great defense as well. Alyssa also had a really nice night offensively. We're very pleased with the girls' efforts tonight. This was a great game for us to play right before our Christmas break. We feel this was definitely our best game of the season so far."
Fitzpatrick tallied 17 points and five rebounds to lead the Big Red. Kristina Danielak, Allyson DiMagno and Flynn added seven points apiece, while Stephanie Long and Maka Anyanwu each handed out three assists. Cornell shot 43.2 percent (16-of-37) from the field, but just 15.4 percent (2-of-13) from three-point land. The Big Red shot 68.8 percent (11-of-16) at the charity stripe and outrebounded Manhattan 27-25.
Tuesday's contest was Manhattan's last non-conference road game of the season. The Lady Jaspers now have nine days off before concluding non-conference play on Dec. 30, when Army (4-7) visits Draddy Gymnasium for a 7 p.m. showdown.
NOTES: It was the second all-time meeting between the schools, and the series is now tied at 1-1...The Lady Jaspers have now beaten all eight schools in the Ivy League at least once...Manhattan didn't trail in a game for the second time this season...Manhattan held its opponent to just 45 points for the second straight game, and allowed fewer than 50 points for the sixth time this season...Herrington became the first Manhattan player to foul out this season...Allison Skrec (Roselle, N.J.) scored her first collegiate points with a pair of free throws in the second half...The Lady Jaspers also went 12-for-21 from three-point range in their season-opening win over St. Francis (NY).
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