The Manhattan-Hofstra games over the last two seasons came down to the wire and this year's match was not different.
After blowing an early second half nine point lead, the Jaspers trailed Hofstra 61-54 with 2:30 remaining.
Chris Smith, who led Manhattan's scoring charge with 15 points, knocked down a 30-foot three-point shot, and Antoine Pearson followed with a three of his own after aHofstra turnover.
Draddy Gymnasium sensed that the Jaspers were going to finish off the Pride as Darryl Crawford was fouled with just over a minute left. Crawford hit the first foul shot but missed the next, giving the game its third tie.
Charles Jenkins, who entered tonight 11th on the leading scorer's list with 23.8 points per game, scored to give the Pride a 63-61 lead.
Manhattan had three opportunities to tie the game on the next possession, but Smith, Crawford, and Devon Austin all missed from point-blank range.
Down 63-61 with the shot clock off, Darryl Crawford dribbled off his foot with 10 seconds remaining. Jenkins only hit one of the foul shots after he was fouled, but stole the ball back from Manhattan and sealed the game with another foul shot.
Final score: Hofstra (4-1) 65, Manhattan (3-2) 61
Barry Rohrssen stormed after the officiating crew after the final buzzer because of a few crucial calls that the referees blew in favor of Hofstra.
Jaspers' radio announcer Ed Cohen claimed he had never seen Rohrssen so livid with the referees after a game.
Manhattan did an excellent job containing Jenkins in the first half, and he only scored two points as a result. However, Cornelius Vines picked up the slack with four three-pointers and Hofstra trailed Manhattan 33-27 at the intermission.
Jenkins found some openings early in the second half en route to a 21-point half. Without the 6'3" sophomore, Manhattan would have won easily.
The Jaspers need to shoot better from the field. In the two consecutive losses, they have converted 43 of their 118 shots for a percentage of 36.4 percent.
Smith and Austin will have to find the touch that they displayed in Manhattan's three wins. Over the last two games, Smith is 7-31 and Austin is 6-20. Austin has played with this inconsistency from the field his entire career, and Smith has also been inconsistent at times.
Smith has fallen in love with the three-point shot, but the strongest aspect of his game is driving to the basket. He continues to settle for long three-pointers, but only hits 23 percent of them. Six of his 12 misses tonight were from behind the arc.
If a senior has not developed a part of his game over the three plus years in a program, chances are he will never improve in that aspect. However, Austin needs to finish more of his shots from close range under contention.
He has a great nose for the ball off the glass and has a chance for a tip in on multiple occasions each night. Sometimes he is able to gently tap the ball into the hoop, but more often he can't find the right touch.
Tonight he missed a tip early in the game and then could not connect to tie the game at 63.
On a brighter note for Austin, the senior became the 29th Jasper to reach 1,000 points in a career. Congratulations to Devon.
Brandon Adams came up big for Manhattan with the Jaspers' first double-double of the seaso
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about 1 month ago
Tough loss for Manhattan. Hofstra is a good team so this loss isn't a bad loss in the least bit. The Jaspers are looking a little better than I think most people tabbed them as earlier this year. They should split this week with Rider being good and Cansius being awful.
from about 1 month ago
If you were able to see or hear the game, you would know it was a bad loss. The stat sheet does not look that bad. I think Manhattan outrebounded a bigger Hofstra team by one and didn't turn the ball over too much. However, they missed out on too many opportunities, took some dumb shots... I don't understand how guys on the team still travel so much after all this time. Should have been a W for the Jaspers.
29 days ago
Yeah, that should have been a win. I, along with most of the crowd and Barry, was frustrated and upset with the refs but I can not blame them for the loss. The Jaspers need to play more consistently to earn the wins they should be getting. They played great against Canisus and if they can play like that for the majority of the season they will be one of the better teams in the MAAC.
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