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Box Score

Canisius Canis 6-25,3-17 MAAC

Manhattan MC 20-10,14-6 MAAC

Canisius Canis

6-25,3-17 MAAC

Final

Mar. 10, 2022

Manhattan MC

20-10,14-6 MAAC

Score By Periods
Team	1	2	3	4	F
Canisius Canis	14	17	5	13	49
Manhattan MC	19	13	16	13	61

Game Recap: Women's Basketball | 3/10/2022 4:30:00 PM

Women’s Basketball Sees Season End in MAAC Championship Quarterfinals

Manhattan junior guard Dee Dee Davis scored a game-high 18 points to go along with six rebounds, six assists and two steals as the No. 3 seeded Jaspers held off Canisius, 61-49, in the quarterfinal round of the 2022 Hercules Tires MAAC Women's Basketball Championship Thursday afternoon at Jim Whelan Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, N.J.

With the win, Manhattan (20-10) advances to the semifinal round of the MAAC Tournament for the first time since 2011, while the Golden Griffins, who became the league's first No. 11 seed to win a game at the MAAC Women's Basketball Championship on Tuesday, sees their season end at 6-25.

GAME RECAP
In the first of two MAAC Tournament quarterfinal games on the day, both teams came out slow, as the Griffs and the Jaspers shot a combined 12-for-39 from the field in the opening 10:00 of play. Manhattan held a 19-14 lead after the opening frame, with nine of the Griffs' first 14 points belonging to freshman guard Athina Lexa, who opened the contest making her first three shots, including two treys from behind the 3-point arc.

In the second quarter, Manhattan stretched its lead to 10 at 30-20 with 2:05 left before the intermission, but the Blue and Gold battled back and trimmed that lead to just one point at the break at 32-31 thanks to a 9-0 run over the final 1:40 of the first half. In that scoring spurt, sophomore Dani Haskell led the way for Canisius with the team's final seven points, which included a 3-pointer from the top of the key with 33.6 seconds left in the half. Canisius shot just 28.9 percent from the field in the opening 20 minutes of play, but the Griffs were able to stay in the contest after turning nine Manhattan turnovers into 11 points.

Out of the intermission, Manhattan took control of the contest, as the Jaspers started the third quarter with a 16-0 scoring run over the span of 7:24 to make the score 48-31 in favor of the Jaspers. In that push, Davis scored seven of Manhattan's points, while teammate Petra Juric added a pair of buckets. Canisius senior Erika Joseph ended the scoring drought for the Griffs with 1:01 left in the third frame with a 3-pointer in transition off a Manhattan turnover, and Lexa closed out the third period scoring with a jump shot from just outside the paint with less the 20 seconds on the clock.

Canisius was able to knock Manhattan's lead down to 48-41 with 8:47 left to play after scoring five-straight points to start the fourth quarter, capped a by 3-point field goal by Haskell, who finished the day with 11 points. That would be as close as the Griffs would get to the Jaspers, however, as Manhattan scored the game's next six points in 3:01 to drive its lead back to 13 points at 54-43 with 5:41 left in the ball game.

Joseph led Canisius with her team-high 15 points, which included three makes from 3-point land. Lexa had 14 points after shooting 5-for-10 from the field and 3-for-6 from behind the arc. Haskell was good for 11 points, three assists and three steals in the losing effort, as the team shot 29.5 percent from the floor and 26.7 percent (8-for-30) from behind the arc.

The Jaspers had four players post 10-plus points in the victory, led by Davis' 18. The Jaspers also held a 50-36 advantage on the glass, turning 20 offensive rebounds into 25 second-chance points. Canisius freshman Rhay Porter grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds for the Griffs, with five of those 11 boards coming off the offensive glass.

Head Coach Sahar Nusseibeh's Postgame Comments
"I'm just extremely proud of these young women in their fight all season long. We've battled a lot of adversity throughout the year. We have one of the most resilient groups you could ask for. One with the most heart and the most will and the most fight. I'm really proud of the effort that they put up against a very good Manhattan team.

"That third quarter [we started] back-to-back-to-back possessions where we didn't finish. We didn't box out and get the defensive rebound and they were able to have second-chance opportunities. That kind of took the wind from our sail a little bit. With that being said, this is a team that never gives up. We knew it was a matter of regrouping with a timeout because we do that every day in practice. It was a matter of not finishing possessions, which has been our Achilles heel, but I'm really proud of the response out of that timeout in the run we made to counter.

"Our defensive game plan was really good. Give credit to Krista Beechy and Jared Zeidman. They do a heck of a job in terms of game planning for us. Something I told our team is we might have the size disadvantage, but we don't have a heart disadvantage. We want it just as bad as Manhattan. The fact that we're three, four inches shorter, it doesn't mean anything. We can't make [Erika Joseph] magically grow to six feet, but you can't measure Erika's heart. It was a matter of executing the game plan, which I think we did a really strong job of, and it allowed us to hold them to 61.

"Foundation laid. [Erika] cemented it. [Kayla Jackson] cemented it, [Ella Väätänen] cemented it. We've got excited freshmen, excited sophomores, an excited junior, who are going to give everything they have so that the run we make next year is longer."

GAME NOTES
• Thursday was the 69th all-time meeting between Canisius and Manhattan. The Griffs, with the loss, now have a 35-34 record against the Jaspers.
• Canisius made eight 3-pointers on Thursday, concluding the season with 251 3-pointers, one shy of matching the program record set during the 2008-09 campaign.
• Porter recorded her fourth double-digit rebounding total of the season and her first since a 15-rebound effort against Rider on Jan. 13. She also matched her career high for points (7), previously done on Jan. 9 against Niagara.
• Jackson added 10 rebounds for Canisius, her third double-figure rebounding total in her last four games. It is Jackson's seventh 10-rebound game of the season.
• With Porter and Jackson each racking at least 10 caroms, it is the first time a Canisius team had multiple players with 10-plus boards since Danielle Sanderlin (11) and Anna Sweny (10) on Feb. 20, 2020, also against Manhattan.
• Haskell's 11 points remained as the fourth-most by a sophomore player in the Division I era. She closed the season with 445 points, the most by a Griff since Sara Hinriksdóttir (448) in 2017-18.
• With two 3-pointers, Haskell finishes the year with 66 made shots from beyond the arc, the second-most by a sophomore in program history. Only Heather Fiore (76 in 1994-95) was the only second-year player with one.
• Haskell's .879 percentage from the free-throw line is the fourth-best by a player with at least 75 makes. Her percentage is the highest by a Griff since Ashley Durham's program-record .894 percentage (84-of-94) in 2012-13.
• Porter (1.4 BPG) and Väätänen (1.1 BPG) are the third Canisius tandem to average at least one block per game and the first since Ashley Wilkes (1.2) and Jen Lennox (1.1) in 2012-13.

For more information on Canisius women's basketball program, follow @GriffsWBB on Instagram and Twitter.

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