The Quadrangle

Issue date: 3/9/05 Section: Sports

Senior forward Peter Mulligan scored 20 points

The Manhattan Men's Basketball team was denied a chance to defend their MAAC Championship title from last year this weekend. They started off well by beating Loyola 88-67 in the opening round Friday night, but they could not keep the momentum going. The Jaspers fought hard, but their efforts were simply not enough as they lost a nail biter to Fairfield 62-60 on Saturday night. The loss knocked Manhattan out of the tournament and ended any chances of them getting a bid into the NCAA Tournament which starts next week.

The Stags, who have the top ranked defense in the MAAC, were all over the Jaspers from the get go and never let up. The main goal of their stifling defense seemed to be to shut down Peter Mulligan and keep the ball out of the hands of the Jaspers leader and main offensive weapon who is averaging close to 20 points a game. Unfortunately for us, it worked.

The game started off with the Stags jumping out to a quick 10-3 lead only minutes into the game, and they never looked back. The Fairfield defense anchored by the nations leading shot blocker Deng Gai, set the tempo for the game. Having Gai in the middle limed Manhattan to only 12 points in the paint. His inside presence never allowed Manhattan to establish an inside game, thus forcing them to rely on their outside shooters. Plus their ability to defend Mulligan, who was limited to only 10 points, did not allow the Jaspers get into any kind of consistent offensive flow was their main problem all night long. Manhattan is more of a fast paced team that relies on transition points and fast breaks which Fairfield was able to stop. Going on streaky runs never allowed the Jaspers to take hold of the game and run it at pace they were comfortable with. They were always playing catch-up. Trailing 32-26 at the half, things did not exactly brighten up in the second half.

Manhattan seemed to come out harder and determined to take over the game, but Fairfield just would not allow that. Even though Manhattan outscored them 34-29 in the second half, their slow start is what eventually killed them in the end. Rider also stuck close by MAAC Rookie of the year CJ Anderson and limited him to only 10 points as well. When your two main offensive options are shut out of a game the slack must be picked up elsewhere. It was, surprisingly enough, Freshman Jeff Xavier, who led all scorers with a career high 22 points. Xavier definitely stepped up his play and proved his value to the team and showed his ability to perform in pressure situations. Xavier led the Jaspers in both games in the tournament and recorded career highs in both of the games the Jaspers played in.

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