Marist men’s basketball boasted the sixth-best scoring defense in the country and needed it in a low-scoring win over Manhattan Friday night 57-50. A 43-point second half pushed the Red Foxes over the hump to extend their win streak to five. Marist held the Jaspers to 32 percent shooting overall.
“We started the game sluggishly but were only down two possessions. We knew if we upped our intensity we had a good opportunity to turn the game around,” said head coach John Dunne.
The two Marist big men, sophomore center Max Allen II and junior forward Jackson Price, scored in double figures where Allen II finished with 15 points and nine rebounds and Price added 10 points.
With the win, the Red Foxes (15-9, 10-5 MAAC) reached their highest win total in a season since 2007 and their most road wins since 2006.
Manhattan (5-20, 2-14 MAAC) freshman forward Seydou Traore turned in a career performance with 18 points and 14 rebounds, but his efforts found little support as just three of his teammates scored at least a point.
Marist entered Riverdale, N.Y on a four-game win streak with red-hot shooting, making 45 percent of their three-point attempts in their last six games. The Jaspers have lost six straight and won just twice since Dec. 1, including a 40-point home loss to Rider on Sunday, Feb. 18.
Both teams scored at a snail’s pace in the early going, with an 8-8 tie at the 9:49 mark of the first half. Traore scored all eight Manhattan points.
A 9-3 Jaspers run forced a Marist timeout with 3:33 remaining in the first half. The Red Foxes failed to score for several minutes, and Manhattan took advantage with more energy and urgency.
Freshman guard Josh Pascarelli ended an eight-minute scoring drought to cut the Marist deficit to six. Marist played their worst offensive half of the season, shooting 22 percent and committing more turnovers (6) than made baskets (5).
“We were a step slow, stuck in the mud a little bit. Just weren’t putting the effort in, not making any effort to get to the offensive glass at all. We just didn’t have it in the first half,” said Dunne.
Yet, the Red Foxes trailed by six at halftime with an opportunity to change the tide in the second frame. Traore finished the half with a double-double, scoring 11 of Manhattan’s 20 points and collecting 10 rebounds.
Marist flipped the script out of the locker room scoring the first seven points and earning a lead going into the first media timeout. Allen II and Pascarelli sustained the run to begin the second half.
After the Red Foxes extended the run to 13-2, Traore knocked in his fourth three-pointer to keep Manhattan close. Junior forward Jackson Price finished a three-point play to give Marist their largest lead with 10:21 left in the game.
Graduate student forward Javon Cooley hit Marist’s first three-pointer in 18 minutes of game time to maintain a slim lead. Allen II gave Marist their first double-digit lead with 5:39 left in the game with a paint score.
“When Max [Allen II] started getting some tips in, that got his energy going and he gained confidence. I think his offensive rebounding got him and the team going,” said Dunne.
The Red Foxes got aggressive on the offensive glass, scoring 10 second-chance points in the second half to relieve their scoring struggles. Manhattan’s offense could not keep up with little rhythm and an inability to make the Marist defense react.
“Sometimes it’s not about trying to be pretty, you gotta do the dirty work and you gotta go. Win or lose, just don’t have any regrets about your effort,” said Dunne.
The Jaspers made a push in the closing minutes to cut the deficit to seven, but time ran out and Marist held to come away with their fifth straight victory.
Junior guard Shaquil Bender scored 15 points off the bench, the only other Jasper to eclipse 10 points.
Dejuan Clayton, an eighth-year graduate student, scored nine points in nine minutes all in the second half in his first action of the season for the Jaspers. His entry into the game made things interesting, but the Red Foxes did not surrender their lead for the last 17 minutes of the second half.
“An hour before the game I was calling friends around the northeast who had coached against him. We kind of got an idea of what [Clayton] was as a player,” said Dunne.
The Red Foxes will finish their road trip with a Sunday contest against St. Peter’s on Feb. 25. Tipoff in Jersey City, N.J. is set for 3 p.m.
Edited by: Aidan Lavin
Photo Credit: Jaylen Rizzo