Despite setback, Jaspers still alive in MAAC

Facing a potential three-game losing streak at a critical juncture of the season, Manhattan’s Shane Richards played his best half of basketball.

The junior forward scored all 20 of his points in the second half of the Jaspers’ 79-70 win over Fairfield on Sunday at Draddy Gymnasium. The win kept Manhattan (13-12, 10-6) in fourth place in the MAAC standings with four regular season games to play, which is important because the top five seeds in the conference tournament receive a bye into the quarterfinal round.

“This is crunch time,” said Jaspers coach Steve Masiello. “If there’s a ‘must-win game,’ this was it. You keep yourself relevant at the top of the standings and there’s still a lot of basketball to be played. ...There’s a lot more movement that will happen in these last two weeks.”

Nine straight

Richards, who played limited minutes in the first half because of two quick fouls, scored nine straight points for Manhattan early in the second half to give it a 44-35 lead with 17:06 to play. And when he made his fourth 3-pointer of the half with 8:12 remaining, the lead extended to 66-48.

“I didn’t really get a chance to get a rhythm going [in the first half],” said Richards, who made six of his first seven field-goal attempts after halftime. “Second half, I hit my first [3-pointer] and kind of just kept rolling from there.”

Emmy Andujar led the Jaspers with 22 points, Ashton Pankey had 17 points and seven rebounds and Tyler Wilson and Rich Williams each had four of the team’s 15 steals.

Team defense was a problem for Manhattan in Friday’s 70-67 loss at home to first-place Iona (21-6, 14-2), as the Gaels shot 52 percent from the field and 61 percent (11-for-18) from three-point range. Still, the Jaspers tied the game at 65 on Andujar’s layup with 53 seconds remaining. But Iona’s A.J. English, who finished with 22 points, hit a 3-pointer coming out of a timeout to give the Gaels the lead for good.

Three on the road

“It came down to a possession here, possession there and their upperclassmen stepped up and made plays,” Masiello said after Friday’s game, which tipped off at 10 p.m. local time because it aired nationally on ESPNU. “We’re a play or two away, but we’ll get it.”

The Jaspers will play their next three games on the road, including Saturday, Feb. 21 in Albany against Siena and Monday, Feb. 23 at Marist. They will have a rematch at Iona and play host to Quinnipiac in the final weekend of the regular season, and the MAAC quarterfinals begin Sat., March 7 at the Times Union Center in Albany.

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