Manhattan To Open MAAC Play At Rider

Riverdale, NY - Manhattan (0-1) opens MAAC play this weekend with a pair of games at reigning league champ Rider (0-4) on Friday, December 11 and Saturday, December 12 with each game starting at 7:00 pm.

How To Watch
Friday's game will be broadcast on ESPN3, and Saturday's on ESPN+.

Lucky Number Seven
Graduate student Gabby Cajou dished out seven assists in the opener, en route to cracking the 300-assist plateau and is now 10th in the all-time annals with 302. For Cajou, it marked the seventh time in her career that the former MAAC Sixth Player of the Year has notched at least seven.

Preseason #1
Manhattan was selected as the MAAC Preseason No. 1 for the 2020-21 season. The Jaspers top the MAAC's preseason coaches poll for the first time in the modern era of the league. The no. 1 preseason ranking is also the Jaspers' highest since the 2002-03 season, when Manhattan was selected to finish second in the league. The Jaspers went on to win the MAAC Championship over Siena that season. 

Three's A Crowd
In addition to the team accolades, Warley and LaPointe were named to the Preseason All-MAAC First Team, while Cajou was tabbed to the Third Team.

Last Year Against Rider ...
Warley averaged 11.0 ppg and 11.5 rpg, and over six career games against the Broncs is notching 8.7 ppg, 8.0 rpg and 1.8 bpg.

Warley's World
Warley, who has 14 career double-doubles, earned unanimous 2020-21 Preseason All-MAAC First Team honors, after averaging 11.6 ppg and 8.7 rpg, while shooting 48.6 percent from the field and nabbing 2.4 spg (38th in NCAA Division I) on her way to becoming just the eighth player in program history to earn MAAC First Team honors. 

Of Note
Warley, the 2018-19 MAAC Defensive Player of the Year, now has 691 rebounds and with nine more will become the ninth player in program history to notch at least 700.Warley, who is also fifth in program history 109 career blocks, will also join former teammate Kayla Grimme as the only two players in program history with at least 700 rebounds and 100 blocks. 

The Staten Island Connection
LaPointe will squaring off against her former Staten Island Academy teammate Sophia DeMauro this weekend.

Manhattan's 2019-20 Season
Manhattan finished the 2019-20 regular season 15-14 overall and 12-8 in conference play, tying for third place in the MAAC rankings, the program's best conference finish since 2011. The Jaspers went 6-1 down the stretch, winning their last five games of the season to secure a #4 seed and a first-round bye in the 2020 Hercules Tires MAAC Women's Basketball Championship, but were denied a chance to face-off in the tournament when it was cancelled March 12 due to the coronavirus outbreak, just minutes before Manhattan's game against #5 seed Quinnipiac.

To LaPointe
LaPointe, was the first-evere unanimous MAAC Rookie of the Year last season, after earning a league-high eight MAAC Rookie of the Week honors last season. LaPointe led the Jaspers in scoring with 12.5 ppg (13th MAAC), while her 1.9 threes per game placed her sixth. LaPointe led the Jasper offense in 14 games, recording double-digit scoring in 22 of her 29 games played. She is the first sophomore player to be named to the  preseason first team since Quinnipiac's Aryn McClure in 2016.

Davis Returns
Davis, who sat out the 2019-20 season due to injury, returned to action with 15 points against Stony Brook. In her first year of action in 2018-19, Davis led the Jaspers with 8.9 ppg, shooting 40 percent from the floor and 33.9 percent from three-point range that year. 

DYK???
In each of the last two seasons, Vulin's recruiting classes paid immediate dividends as the Jaspers were paced in scoring each year by a freshman with Davis topping the charts in 2018-19 and LaPointe a year ago.

Hitting Milestones
Now with 691 career rebounds, Warley ranks 10th all-time and is seven away from tying Meredith Morse (1996-2000) for ninth place. Warley is also 10 steals away from tying for 15th on that all-time list. Cajou is 10th all time with 302 career assists, and 26 behind Michelle Pacheco (2006-10). Graduate Student Pamela Miceus is tied for 10th place all-time with 71 career blocks. She needs just one more to hold 10th place on her own, and two more to tie Sheila Tighe (1980-84) for ninth place. 

About The Broncs
Rider enters with a 0-4 record, having dropped games to Villanova, Drexel, Army West Point and Delaware State.

The Broncs are paced by trio of Amanda Mobley (10.5 ppg), Raphaela Toussaint (7.5 ppg) and Daija Moses (7.3 ppg).

Rider, which only lost four games a year, has had to face the unenviable task of replacing the scoring load of 2020 MAAC Player of the Year and Washington Mystics guard Stella Johnson (24.8 ppg in 2019-20). Additionally, the Broncs also graduated Lea Farve (11.9 ppg) and Amari Johnson (11.6 ppg, 10.6 rpg). 

Previous Meeting
Manhattan dropped a hard-fought 55-50 decision on February 15, despite 12 points and 19 rebounds from Warley.

Two Year Ago ...
The Jaspers defeated the Broncs 60-57 at Alumni Gymnasium thanks to 12 points from senior Lizahya Morgan and 11 points and six rebounds from classmate Lynette Taitt.

Head Coach Heather Vulin
Heather Vulin was named the eighth head coach in Manhattan College program history on April 25, 2016. A 1999 graduate of Minnesota-Morris, she earned nearly two decades of coaching experience before arriving in Riverdale. She began her career as a graduate assistant at North Dakota State from 2000-02, then spent six seasons as an assistant coach at Sacred Heart from 2002-08. Vulin was on the staff at Villanova for seven seasons (2008-15) before spending the 2015-16 campaign as assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Virginia Tech. She won her first game as a head coach against Holy Cross, defeating the Crusaders 60-56 on November 11, 2016 at home. She won her first MAAC game against Siena on December 30, 2016, when the Jaspers defeated the Saints 68-66 in Riverdale.

Vulin has continued to raise the standard for the women's basketball program since her arrival at Manhattan. She mentored Warley to the program's first MAAC First Team selection since 2011 and the program's second MAAC Defensive Player of the Year Award. In addition, she guided LaPointe to the unanimous 2019-20 MAAC Rookie of the Year award, and Cajou to the program's first MAAC Sixth Player of the Year award in 2018. The Jaspers have earned a spot in the MAAC quarterfinals for three-straight years, and the squad has moved from a 10th-place pick in the MAAC preseason poll in 2017 to first this season.

The Coaching Staff
Vulin's staff consists of Allie Bassetti, Callan Taylor, Rena Wakama and Kiambra Griffin. 

In her fifth season, Bassetti, serves as an assistant coach and the team's recruiting coordinator. She joined Vulin at Manhattan after serving as the director of basketball operations at American from 2013-16. Also in her fifth season and fourth as an assistant coach, Taylor was the 2011-12 NEC player of the year at Sacred Heart and played basketball professionally overseas before arriving in Riverdale. Wakama is in herfourth season with the Jaspers and her second as an assistant coach. A 2014 graduate of Western Carolina, she played professional basketball, making stops in the United Kingdom and the FIBA African Basketball League. 

Griffin joined the Jaspers last year as director of basketball operations. Prior to that, the 2018 Davidson grad was a graduate assistant at Columbia.

#playGREEN
The Jaspers' team motto "playGREEN" is a concept developed by Vulin. For the team, playGREEN is a commitment to the pursuit of excellence. Vulin expects her players to have that mindset every day, as they play for their teammates, for their program, and to represent Manhattan College at a championship level. The Jaspers use #playGREEN on all of the team's social media channels. 

The Newcomers
Manhattan welcomes three freshman and one transfer for the 2019-20 season. 

Jenna Jordan joins the squad from St. Francis Brooklyn, where she averaged 6.3 ppg, shooting 46.3 percent as a freshman.

Nia Bailey, a freshman from New Rochelle, NY, was named a 2019-20 Conference I All-Section selection, in addition to being named a Journal News/LoHud Girls Basketball Honorable Mention for Westchester and Putnam Counties. 

Classmate Favour Mbeledeogu won the Pennsylvania District Three Class 2A championship as a member of the Linden Hall for Girls squad and also played for Raptors Academy (2016) and Deepbond Academy (2017). 

Rounding out the newcomers, Emma Wilson-Saltos joins the team from the Bronx's Preston High School, and is the first player out of Preston to to play Division I basketball in 16 years.

AC Here We Come!
The 2020-21 men's and women's MAAC Championships will take place March 9-13 in Atlantic City, NJ. The tournament will be held at Jim Whelan Boardwalk Hall.

United For Justice
Earlier this year, the MAAC launched its United for Justice campaign. For the 2020-21 season, the MAAC will work both internally at the conference office and with all 11 member institutions to advance and execute strategies to combat racial injustices within our society. The MAAC and its member institutions will work to address the long-standing history of systemic racism and inequality that minorities in this country have and still currently face, with a goal to educate those around us and to create substantial change in our communities. The MAAC basketball programs have united to focus their messaging platform for the upcoming season on Black Lives Matter. Specifically, the coaches will be showcasing the Black Lives Matter messaging on warm up shirts and uniform patches. 

Up Next
Manhattan will host Quinnipiac at Draddy Gymnasium on Saturday, December 18 (6:00 pm) and Sunday, December 19 (7:00 pm).