HONOLULU, HI – The Manhattan Jaspers Men's Basketball team (2-1) opened the OUTRIGGER Rainbow Classic with a victory over the Trail Blazers of Utah Tech (2-3) by a score of 79-75 inside Bankoh Arena at Stan Sherriff Center on Wednesday night.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- The Jaspers opened their second-ever game in program history in the Aloha State against the Trail Blazers for their inaugural meeting.
- Back-and-forth missed shots for both Utah Tech and Manhattan eventually came to a halt when sophomore guard Erik Oliver-Bush opened the scoring with a driving layup.
- After trailing by one, nearly ten minutes into the contest, the Jaspers jumped back in front courtesy of a Quron Elliott driving layup to move the deficit to just one.
- Off the bench was Anthony Isaac for the Green and White. After missing a triple, Oliver-Bush grabbed the offensive carom and followed up with a booming dunk to give the Jaspers a three-point edge.
- The Jaspers began pulling away after drawing three shooting fouls, capitalizing on all shots from the charity stripe.
- With a game-high six-point advantage, the Trail Blazers began their comeback before a bad pass from Oliver Bush led to a fast break bucket for Utah Tech to tie the game at 30.
- In the second half, the Jaspers responded the way it was supposed to with nine consecutive points behind Fraser Roxburgh and Jaden Winston's back-to-back three pointers.
- After the Jaspers committed a foul, it was Roxburgh, again, who sank home a booming triple to give the Green and White its largest lead of the day at seven.
- The reigning Sixth Man of the Year, Devin Dinkins, pushed the pace with a towering three-pointer to extend the lead to double-digits for the first time in the contest.
- Continuing his career day, Roxburgh capitalized on a lost ball turnover from Utah Tech to add another two points to his ledger on the day.
- After leading by as much as 14, the Trail Blazers made things quite interesting before Jaden Winston quieted the crowd with a commanding triple, before Roxburgh did the same to give the Jaspers a five-point margin once again.
- The Jaspers kept things close, but closing it out was Fraser Roxburgh, again, who netted points 18 and 19 with just 1:45 left to give enough breathing room to secure its first victory of the season.
STATS AND NOTES
- Redshirt Junior guard Devin Dinkins paced the Jaspers with 20 points on 5-of-11 shooting from the floor, which included eight-of-nine from the charity stripe in a full 40 minutes of game action.
- Sophomore forward Fraser Roxburgh set a new career high with 19 points on the evening, on eight-of-17 from the floor. The Australian native also grabbed eight rebounds in 35 minutes.
- Junior guard Jaden Winston logged 15 points after posting a career high in Los Angeles 72 hours prior, going 5-for-9 from the floor, including a pair of triples.
- Sophomore guard Erik Oliver-Bush grabbed two rebounds and was a perfect three-of-three from the field in 26 minutes.
- Manhattan notched its best free-throw percentage of the season by converting 17-of-20 for an 85% clip on the night.
- The Jaspers won the defensive rebound battle 24-18, while adding 16 bench points compared to Utah Tech's 12. The Green and White also swatted away five blocks as a team, highlighted by Erik Oliver-Bush's three on the night.
QUOTES FROM THE JASPERS
Head Coach
John Gallagher: "I would like to give credit to Utah Tech and to Coach Judkins. We have such respect for him. He's one heck of a basketball coach. I have a lot of respect for what he does, and the way he runs his program. I also thought we got a huge performance from Fraser [Roxburgh]. He came up with big baskets in the big moments. Also, I thought Devin was unbelievable. Just really, really good. Then, in my opinion, Jaden [Winston] has been stepping it up a notch and made huge baskets. We got great performances from
Anthony Isaac, and Erik [Oliver Bush] made some huge key defensive plays. We had great balance, and it was exciting."
Sophomore forward
Fraser Roxburgh: "Ahead of tonight our focus was to do a better job on our ball screen coverages, and finishing the play by hitting and gang rebounding. tonight we executed and shared the ball and we came out with the win. It's a great opportunity, it's a blessing to be able to travel to places like these and play college basketball, but at the end of the day we're here to play our brand of basketball. We need to stay locked in, take care of our bodies, have a solid practice tomorrow and keep doing what we do."
NEXT UP:
Manhattan continues its stint in the OUTRIGGER Rainbow Classic on Friday, November 14, when the Green and White take on the Rainbow Warriors of the University of Hawaii for a midnight (eastern) start from inside Bankoh Arena at Stan Sherriff Center. The contest can be viewed on ESPN+ with a paid subscription.
