Box Score
Box Score
HACKENSACK, N.J. – The Manhattan College women's basketball team (1-0) began its 2013-14 season with a 73-63 victory over Fairleigh Dickinson (0-1) at Stratis Arena on Sunday night. Nicole Isaacs (Fair Haven, N.J.) paced the Jaspers with 19 points, while Shayna Ericksen (Long Valley, N.J.) recorded a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds.
“I think Nicole is going to be a real big-time scorer for us,” Head Coach John Olenowski said. “One of the benefits for her is that we have a lot of weapons. She did a really good job and hit some key shots.”
Fairleigh Dickinson led early on before an Isaacs trey gave the Jaspers a 7-6 advantage 3:34 into the contest. After a Kelsey Cruz hit a jumper to put the Knights back in front, Manhattan regained the lead for good on a Monica Roeder (Marlton, N.J.) bucket at the 14:40 mark. The lead ballooned to 13 points at 33-20 with 2:31 remaining in the first half, but Fairleigh Dickinson ended the period on a 9-2 spurt, and Desiree Crawford's layup at the halftime buzzer made it a six-point game, 35-29, at intermission.
The Knights scored the first four points of the second half to get within two at 35-33 before Isaacs sank a three-pointer to push the Jaspers' lead back to five. With Manhattan clinging to a three-point advantage, 50-47, at the 12:00 mark, Isaacs drained a trey to ignite a 12-3 run that would see the margin increase to 12 points, 62-50. Fairleigh Dickinson responded with five straight points to get back within seven, 62-55, with 6:51 remaining, but would get no closer. A free throw by Ashley Stec (Cazenovia, N.Y.) finished off the scoring, as the Jaspers won a season-opener on the road for the first time since 2010-11 with a 73-63 victory.
Isaacs drained five three-pointers, and her 19 points were a career-high. Roeder added 13 points, five rebounds and three assists, while Allison Skrec (Roselle, N.J.) notched nine points and seven assists. Kayla Grimme (Altoona, Pa.) got the start in her collegiate debut and finished with seven points and four boards in 22 minutes of action. Stec chipped in six points, four rebounds and four assists off the bench. The Jaspers shot 46.4 percent (26-of-56) from the field, and 22 of Manhattan's 26 baskets were assisted. Manhattan went 7-for-24 (29.2 percent) from long range and 14-for-22 (63.6 percent) at the charity stripe.
“I thought we did a really good job of handling the ball,” Olenowski said. “We spread out the scoring a little bit, and I really thought our younger kids did a great job filling some key roles.”
Cruz tallied a game-high 21 points to pace the Knights. Amanda Andrades notched 11 points to go along with four assists and three steals, while Anastasia Williams had a double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds. Crawford pulled down a game-high 13 boards, as the Knights outrebounded the Jaspers 44-38. Fairleigh Dickinson shot 31.7 percent (19-of-60) from the field, 29.4 percent (5-of-17) from downtown, and 64.5 percent (20-of-31) at the free throw line.
The Jaspers continue their season-opening three-game road trip with a visit to Towson (0-1) at 7 p.m. on Saturday night.
NOTES: The Jaspers lead the all-time series, 12-6…Manhattan snapped a two-game season-opening losing streak and improved to 3-2 in season openers under Olenowski…A freshman started the opener for the second straight season and the third time in four years…The Jaspers' 73 points equaled their 2012-13 season-high…Manhattan had 22 assists compared to 14 turnovers…Freshmen Maeve Parahus (Congers, N.Y.) and Nicole Anderson (Hamden, Conn.) each made their collegiate debut on Sunday night…Parahus tallied five points, while Anderson recorded one assist and one steal…Olenowski announced that freshman center Mikki Guiton (Schwenksville, Pa.) will miss the season with a leg injury…Roeder moved past both Brooke Renkens and Tonya Obey into 18th place on Manhattan's all-time scoring list…Isaacs' previous career-high was 12 points, which she achieved most recently at Siena on Jan. 13, 2013…Ericksen recorded her fifth career double-double.
