Jaspers Take On Nebraska

Lincoln, NE - Manhattan women's basketball will take on the Big Ten's Nebraska Sunday, December 22 at Pinnacle Bank Arena. Tip-off is scheduled for noon (CT). 

GAME NOTES

Last Outing
Manhattan overcame an 18-point deficit to force overtime against Monmouth on December 17, but a basket by the Hawks' Lucy Thomas in the final seconds gave Monmouth the 62-60 win in both teams' first MAAC contest of the season. Senior guard Gabby Cajou (Stony Point, NY / North Rockland) scored a season-high 20 points in the game, including eight in the third quarter. She added a game-high six assists and four steals. Courtney Warley (West Chester, PA / Bishop Shanahan) contributed 16 points and a team-best nine rebounds on the night, adding three steals and two blocks of her own.

Defense Wins Championships
Manhattan ranks second in the MAAC in scoring defense, holding opponents to 60.7 points per game (just 0.2 behind Monmouth, the league leader). The Jaspers also are the conference leaders in three-point field goal percentage defense (.284), while ranking second in blocked shots per game (3.2) and steals per game (9.1).  

Good LaPointe
Freshman Emily LaPointe (Staten Island, NY / Staten Island Academy) earned her third (and second-straight) MAAC Rookie of the Week award on December 16 after contributing 12 points and five rebounds in Manhattan's win over Army on December 13. LaPointe ranks second in scoring for the squad, averaging 9.6 points per game (21st in the MAAC), and scored a career-high 18 points at Villanova on November 21, paving the way for her first MAAC Rookie of the Week honor in November. Her three weekly honors is the most among all freshmen in the league.

Warley at Work
Warley ranks in the MAAC's top 20 for scoring (9.0 points per game), while ranking third in rebounding (7.7 per game). With 1.9 steals per game, she is tied for fourth in the league. 

About the Cornhuskers
Nebraska comes into Sunday's match-up at 9-1 on the season, with the Cornhuskers' only loss coming from Creighton. Leigha Brown leads Nebraska in scoring with 13.7 points per game, while Ashtyn Veerbeek averages a team-high 6.4 rebounds per game. Kate Cain leads the Big Ten with 3.2 blocks per game, ranking ninth in Division I, and the Cornhuskers' 6.2 blocks per game is also a league-high.

First Meeting
Sunday's meeting marks the first between Manhattan and Nebraska. Manhattan last faced a Big Ten school in 2017, when the Jaspers traveled to Penn State.

All in the Family
Nebraska's Kate Cain is the daughter of former Manhattan men's basketball player Tim Cain, class of 1985. Earlier this year, Tim Cain was inducted into the MAAC Honor Roll at the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. A Manhattan Hall of Famer, he graduated as the men's program's all-time leading scorer, and remains the lone Jasper to earn All-MAAC honors in each of his four seasons in Riverdale. Kate Cain's brother, John, is also a former member of the Manhattan baseball team. This past summer, he became the sixth Jasper in the last four years to ink a contract with a Major League Baseball team when he signed a free agent contract with the Los Angeles Angels.