Jaspers meltdown brings win for Fordham

This wasn’t any ordinary loss for the Manhattan Jaspers women’s squad. It was a meltdown.

Just a week removed from the men’s victory over the Fordham Rams in “The Battle of the Bronx”, the Lady Jaspers fell in their own rivalry against Fordham Saturday evening, 63-60, proving that sometimes a great sequel is hard to produce.

“There were times we didn’t execute, they got nervous,” said head coach Heather Vulin. “We just have to keep playing with that same energy. We [also] have to have more maturity when we play. If our team plays with that type of energy, though, we’re going to win some more games this year and I’m excited to coach a group [like that] for 40 minutes.”

However optimistic Vulin might be about the team’s future, indicative of the team’s play throughout the course of the game, the latter part was disastrous.

With Manhattan up 14 points and 8:55 left in regulation, the Rams went on a 22-5 run to end the game. The Jaspers went over six minutes without a field goal and three straight possessions ended in turnovers.

“We got into some foul trouble, so we had some kids that were playing that normally don’t play in that situation,” said Vulin. “We got some shots, I was hoping to get some calls, I was purposely trying to go at G’mrice Davis [Fordham’s star forward] to try to get her out of the game, but we weren’t making that happen.”

Davis dominated Manhattan the entire game. She scored 24 points and pummeled the Jaspers on the boards, pulling down 18. Kayla Grimme, Manhattan’s team’s leader in rebounds (6.8 per game), proved no match for Davis.

“Kayla’s obviously been our leading rebounder, leading scorer all year,” said Vulin. “She had an off game tonight. If she had her normal game, we probably would’ve won this game. But it happens, and when it does happen other people have to step up.”

Manhattan’s Amani Tatum thinks rebounding is the key to the Jaspers season.

“Rebounding is something that we need to continue to improve on if we want to win games this year,” Tatum said. “But overall, I thought we outworked them. I thought we were tougher than them, but it just comes down to rebounding which hurt us a lot.”

Even with Grimme’s forgettable night and Davis’ monster performance, Manhattan dominated the majority of the second half. If one were to totally void the final eight minutes of the game, Manhattan looked like it was in midseason form.

The squad was tantalizing defensively, coming away with eight steals for the game and 11 points off turnovers. Each player, except for junior Sheridan Heine, scored.

“Defense was great, our on-ball pressure was incredible,” said Tatum, who had two key steals of her own. “We hit a lot of open shots. We look good for the future and I’m not too worried.”

This game was quirky, however. The Jaspers scored just 25 first-half points, but then poured in 27 in the third quarter alone, which should’ve been an indicator for a potential letdown in the fourth. It happened, sending Manhattan back to Riverdale without bragging rights.

“They made shots when they needed to,” said Vulin. “We didn’t execute and make shots when we had to.”