The Canisius women's basketball team opened the 2014-15 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference schedule with a 55-44 win over Manhattan College in the Koessler Athletic Center on Friday night.

Senior Kayla Hoohuli had 16 points and six rebounds while shooting 3-for-5 from behind the arc. Junior Tiahana Mills had 11 points and five rebounds while fellow junior Crystal Porter added 10 points, nine rebounds and a career-high four blocks. Sophomore Tamara Miskovic matched a career high with five assists.

“We got a lot of loose balls in the first half and locked down Manahttan defensively throughout most of that game,” Canisius coach Terry Zeh said. “We were a little sluggish in our offense expecting Manhattan to play zone, but they played a lot of man-to-man. I was proud of how we adjusted to that and we have to work on being sharp for 40 minutes, regardless of the time and score.”

Both teams started slowly from the field, combining to go 4-for-23 with seven turnovers in the opening eight minutes. A layup from sophomore Lauren D'Hont started an 11-0 run for the Griffs during a span of more than four minutes. Hoohuli also scored five points during the run that put Canisius up 12-6 and featured four assists from Miskovic.  

The Jaspers cut the deficit to one point at 16-15 before Canisius used another 11-0 run to regain control, again holding Manhattan scoreless for more than four minutes. Hoohuli drained a 3pointer and Mills scored on an up-and-under layup as the Griffs took a 27-18 lead into the locker room.

Manhattan (1-5, 0-1 MAAC) never got closer than six points in the second half as Canisius maintained a comfortable lead throughout the second 20 minutes. A three-point play from Shayna Ericksen made it 42-35 with 9:14 left but the Griffs answered with an eight-point spurt to put the game away. Mills drained a 3-pointer from the top of the key, freshman Laniere Coleman scored on a putback and junior Emily Weber connected on a 3-pointer to extend the lead to 50-35. Canisius held the Jaspers without a field goal for nearly six minutes down the stretch.

Ericksen led Manahttan with 11 points and 12 rebounds as Canisius held Manhattan to a 27.8 field-goal percentage.

Canisius (2-3, 1-0 MAAC) wraps up its first weekend of MAAC play against Saint Peter's on Sunday, with tipoff in the KAC set for 2 p.m.

Notes: Canisius and Manhattan have split the last four meetings after the Jaspers had a six-game winning streak in the series… Canisius won its conference opener for the second time in the last three years… Porter has scored at least 10 points in each of the first five games, the longest streak to open a season since Megan Lyte in 2005-06 (eight straight games)… Porter also has a stretch of 10 points and eight rebounds in each of the first five games, the first Golden Griffin to have a streak that long (at any point of the season) since Marie Warner in 2008-09… Canisius scored 32 points in the paint and has scored at least 32 points in the paint in three of the last four games… Canisius improved to 85-13 under Zeh when leading by five points or more at halftime and 42-4 when holding its opponent under 50 points.