The ninth-seeded Jaspers next play top-seeded Marist.
By JIMMY KELLEY
SPRINGFIELD – The Manhattan and Loyola women’s basketball teams capped the first day of the Metro Athletic Conference Basketball Championships in dramatic fashion Thursday at the MassMutual Center.
Trailing 49-48 with just .09 seconds left in the fourth quarter, Manhattan’s Monica Roeder caught the inbound pass from Allison Skrec and buried the shot from the baseline to give the ninth-seeded Jaspers a 50-49 win.
Roeder, Manhattan’s leading scorer for the season, rebounded from a scoreless first half to finish with 10 points and eight rebounds. Her first basket, a 3-pointer to start the second half, was the 1,000th point of her career.
“I’m a shooter so I knew I just had to keep shooting,” Roeder said. “I was working on my touch at halftime. I wanted to take that last shot.
“I’ve never made a game-winner before so it feels good. I wouldn’t have been able to do it without my teammates.”
Manhattan (8-22) advanced to face top-seeded Marist (23-6) at 1:30 p.m. Friday at the MassMutual Center.
The game started slowly with the teams combining for just 10 points in the first 10 minutes. A flurry of baskets at the end of the half pushed the score to 18-17 in favor of Loyola, but 17 combined turnovers – 11 by Manhattan – told the story.
Both teams came out firing after the break.
Loyola’s Nicole Krusen traded 3-pointers with Skrec and Roeder to start the half and by the under-16 minute timeout the teams had combined for 18 points.
“We wanted a fast pace, we wanted to push the ball and get easy baskets in transition,” Manhattan coach John Olenowski said. “That was the game plan.”
Toni-Ann Lawrence (15 points) was the go-to scorer for much of the game, especially with Roeder’s slow start. So when it came time for Olenowski to draw up a final play, it was Lawrence he had in mind.
“Toni is just playing on another level right now,” Olenowski said. “The play was designed for her under the hoop, but when all five defenders moved towards her I looked at Roeder and she said she was going to slip.”
With so much attention paid to Lawrence, Roeder was able to catch the ball flat footed and get the shot off to send the Jaspers’ bench into a frenzy as they exercised the demons of last season’s buzzer-beating exit from the tournament.
Katie Sheahin led eighth-seeded Loyola (12-17) with 13 points, while Kara Marshall added 11.