Manhattan finishes conference play at 15-14 overall and 12-8 in the MAAC, both the best records of Head Coach Heather Vulin's four seasons in Riverdale. Monmouth falls to 8-20 for the year and 5-14 in the league.
Highlights:
- Courtney Warley (West Chester, PA / Bishop Shanahan) and Emily LaPointe (Staten Island, NY / Staten Island Academy) each put in 17 points for the Manhattan offense Thursday night, including 12 from Warley in the second half. LaPointe scored in double-figures for the 22nd time this season, while Warley hit 17 games with 10 points or more.
- Warley also led Manhattan with 10 rebounds for her seventh double-double of the season and her 12 double-figure rebounding game. Warley's 183 defensive rebounds this season put her at fourth on the program's single-season list and just six away from the top three.
- Warley nabbed a game-high three steals, while LaPointe tied for a game-high four assists.
- Manhattan trailed the Hawks by as many as seven in the second quarter, as the Jaspers found themselves down 26-24 at halftime.
- However, Warley took over in the second half, nabbing six points and four rebounds in the third quarter, as well as a steal and layup at the top of the Jasper press to help Manhattan earn a one-point advantage in the stanza and stay within two of Monmouth headed into the fourth.
- Warley gave Manhattan its first lead since the first quarter with a layup with just under nine minutes to play in the final quarter. Monmouth scored the next five points, before Warley and LaPointe combined for a 9-0 run to earn the lead back and then extend it to five with 2:45 to play.
- At the 2:25 mark, LaPointe turned the ball over on an offensive foul that later resulted in a layup for Monmouth's Alexa Middleton to make it a one possession game.
- Julie Høier (Aabyhoej, Denmark / Marselisborg Gymnasium) answered by drilling her only three attempt of the day to put Manhattan back up six with just over a minute to go.
- The Hawks employed a fouling strategy with 40 seconds to play, first putting LaPointe at the line, where she made one of two. Middleton then hit a jumper to again make it a one possession game.
- But back at the free throw line, Gabby Cajou (Stony Point, NY / North Rockland) and LaPointe went a combined 3-4 down the stretch to seal the win.
- With one block in the game, Pamela Miceus (Haverstraw, NY / North Rockland) is now at 71 for her career and tied with Christine Lardon (1988-92) and Kelly Regan (2005-2009) for 10th place all-time. She needs just two more to tie Manhattan great Sheila Tighe for ninth place.
Now finished with the regular season, Manhattan sits in third place in the MAAC standings awaiting the results of Saturday's final conference contests. Should both Fairfield and Quinnipiac lose on Saturday, Manhattan will hold the outright third seed in the MAAC tournament. Should all three teams be tied at the end of conference play, Fairfield would win the tie breaker over the Jaspers and Bobcats because of the Stags' win over Marist earlier this season. The fourth and fifth seeds would then be determined by each teams' performance against the team just below them in the standings, since Manhattan and Quinnipiac would have the same record against the top teams.