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Daily News (New York)
March 9, 2008 Sunday
SPORTS FINAL EDITION
AN INSIDE JOB JOLTS JASPERS. CAN’T STOP SIENA IN PAINT, GET OUSTED
BYLINE: BY SEAN BRENNAN DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER
SECTION: SPORTS; Pg. 53
ALBANY – Devon Austin was hoping to build on his breakout game from Friday night, when he torched St. Peter’s for 26 points and helped Manhattan advance into yesterday’s quarterfinal round of the MAAC Tournament.
But playing the top seed, Siena – on the Saints’ home court, no less – proved to be entirely different than facing ninth-seeded St. Peter’s.
“(Siena) wasn’t the No. 1 seed for nothing,” Manhattan coach Barry Rohrssen said. “They are a very good basketball team, a talented basketball team and a well-coached basketball team.”
And a team that is headed for the MAAC semifinals.
Siena got a stellar performance from Alex Franklin, who scored 26 points and grabbed nine rebounds in dominating the Jaspers inside as Manhattan’s season came to a close yesterday with a 66-58 loss.
The Jaspers finished 12-19, while Siena (20-10) moved on to face Loyola in tonight’s early semifinal.
“The firepower that Siena’s got, they’ve got scorers all over the floor, so they’re going to get baskets,” said Austin, who had 17 points and 11 rebounds. “We just needed to get some stops and we didn’t do that. They just knocked down their shots.”
And the major culprit was Franklin. The 6-5 sophomore scored 16 points in the first half as Siena took a 32-23 lead into the break, with the bulk of his points coming on shots right around the basket.
“He scored half their points in the first half,” Rohrssen said. “That was unbelievable. We certainly needed to put up a better fight in our post defense.”
But it wasn’t all on the defense. All the balls that seemed to drop for Manhattan Friday night were no longer falling yesterday. The Jaspers were just 1-of-9 on three-pointers in the first half and 3-of-14 for the game. They went 5-for-12 from the free-throw line, including 0-for-5 in the first half.
The closest the Jaspers got in the second half was seven points with 4:26 to play.
“It’s tough when you’re playing behind like that all game,” Austin said. “You use a lot of energy trying to catch them.”
Manhattan, which had shocked Siena on Feb. 18 at Draddy Gym, was hoping for a repeat performance yesterday. And though they came up short, the youthful Jaspers impressed Siena coach Fran McCaffrey.
“We beat a very good basketball team,” McCaffrey said. “They weren’t a very good basketball team eight weeks ago (when Manhattan lost at Siena, 69-56), but I think Barry has done a phenomenal job bringing this young team along.
“Our program has a tremendous amount of respect for Manhattan and a tremendous amount of respect for Barry and the job he’s done.”
The Jaspers, with 11 underclassmen on their 13-player roster, already are looking forward to next season. And with a year under their belts, they think it could be the beginning of a long and successful run in Riverdale.
“I think we’ll learn from this,” said sophomore Antoine Pearson, who scored 10 points. “We’ll gain experience from it, learn to stay together and build upon this.
Freshman guard Chris Smith was a little more specific.
“I feel next year we should be one of the top teams in the league,” said Smith, who logged 10 points. “I feel we’re going to be a great team in the future.”
LOAD-DATE: March 11, 2008
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[JR: ... ... but how were their grades in Theology? We must keep our priorities straight. ;-) Just joshing.]
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