UConn’s desperation sparks hot start, carries Huskies to finish line at Marquette

Solo Ball reacts after one of seven 3-pointers as UConn overcame 25 turnovers to defeat Marquette in first of three-game gauntlet to open February. (Photo by UConn Men’s Basketball)

MILWAUKEE, Wis. — Just over three minutes into the second half of UConn’s Saturday night clash with Marquette, Dan Hurley had a defiant, yet passionate question to his team during a timeout.

“With everything we’ve been through this year, how are they more desperate than us?” Hurley demanded, his consternation picked up by the Fox television cameras.

Marquette had cut a deficit that once stood at 22 points before the intermission to nine at that juncture, and would respond with several more rallies even after the Huskies had stemmed the aforementioned tide. But it was UConn, still without Liam McNeeley and Ahmad Nowell—and with a limited Hassan Diarra—who matched its coach’s desire just long enough to emerge from Fiserv Forum with a 77-69 victory over the ninth-ranked Golden Eagles to put an inconsistent January to rest with arguably its biggest and most resonant result in Big East play.

“You’re not coming into this place, versus that coach and this program and you’re not getting out of here clean and easy,” Hurley shared as he recounted his message during the aforementioned timeout. “They were gonna make multiple runs that we would have to respond to, and we were gonna have to hold on and make enough plays at the end of the game, too. The message is these runs are gonna keep coming, and we gotta respond.”

And respond, UConn did. In more ways than one.

Three days removed from a slow start where they trailed DePaul by double digits in the first half Wednesday, the Huskies stormed out to a 14-4 lead in the opening minutes, with three 3-pointers from Jaylin Stewart inflicting enough damage to force Marquette head coach Shaka Smart into a timeout as UConn (16-6, 8-3 Big East) started the game making 14 of its first 20 shots and six of its first eight threes.

“Those points early in the game took the crowd out of it a little bit,” Hurley said of Stewart’s torrid beginning. “Without those points and without that start, we’re not in this position. His start is a big reason why we won.”

The other major contributor was Solo Ball. On a night where Marquette’s frenetic defensive pressure rendered UConn into 25 turnovers, the Huskies needed every bit of Ball’s 25 points and 10 rebounds, the former achieved on 7-of-11 shooting. Each of the sophomore’s made baskets came from beyond the 3-point arc, one backbreaker after another in the second half when it appeared the host Golden Eagles would complete the comeback.

“He hit a big shot every time that we were able to make a run and threaten to come back,” Smart conceded. “He was huge. There’s a lot of stuff underneath that, on both ends of the floor, where we need to be better. UConn deserves a ton of credit, but obviously, our focus is on ourselves and what we can improve. We have to make them miss. That’s our job.”

“We have to have an understanding that beating Marquette is a quality win, and there’s a level of desperation that the other team has when they play us. That’s whether it’s UConn, Butler, Villanova…it doesn’t matter who it is. We talk about that a lot, but acceptance only works 100 percent. If you 75 percent accept that, that ain’t gonna work.”

Circling back to the desperation Hurley cited in the huddle, the UConn coach again called out the lack of a killer instinct among his side Saturday, even after a hard-fought win.

“There was a stretch in the second half where it was like we weren’t desperate enough or urgent enough,” he lamented. “It’s been the story of our season. These are the things that we haven’t done this year that our past teams have done. They were just way hungrier to the ball, especially in the second half. These are things that are gonna happen to us during the course of the year. I’m proud of the win, but we don’t play with that tenacity that our past teams have played with. We got bailed out by Solo having a crazy shooting night.”

“To be able to hold on and win it with the 25 turnovers, it took 60 percent shooting from the field to overcome that, and some clutch shots by this guy.”

That next game comes against a St. John’s team that is now—after UConn’s win Saturday—in sole possession of the Big East lead, and owner of a Top 5 defense in the nation. McNeeley will most likely be good to go against the Red Storm, as will Ahmad Nowell and Hassan Diarra, the latter of whom has been limited in recent games from a mobility perspective. But more importantly, the Huskies get a well-deserved and much-needed break before the Johnnies come to Gampel Pavilion on Friday, a matchup that is sure to be every bit as physical as the gauntlet from which UConn just emerged.

“For us, we gotta get Hassan healthy, and Liam will be at full strength as long as there’s no setbacks,” Hurley said. “We’ll get Nowell back too, I think, and Hassan, they gotta figure that out. We can’t afford to have him hobbling around like that. Obviously, it was a huge win for us, and now we get a chance to get healthy going into the next game. We’re looking a lot healthier.”

Princeton flushes Yale loss with commanding win over Brown

By Andrew Hefner (@Ahef_NJ)

PRINCETON, N.J. — It was a huge night for the young core of the Princeton Tigers in a big win over their Ivy League foe Brown, 69-49 at home. 

As the starting lineups were announced in front of a packed Jadwin Gymnasium crowd, a murmur spread amongst the Princeton faithful when freshman CJ Happy was announced as the fourth starter for the Tigers. Happy, a 6-foot-9 forward, replaced the consistent Philip Byriel in the lineup, who shot 0-for-6 from beyond the arc in Friday’s loss against Yale. Byriel would only play one minute in the entire contest against Brown. 

Happy made an immediate impact, assisting on a big 3-pointer for senior Blake Peters for Princeton’s second bucket of the game. The Tigers and Bears would go on to trade blows for the first part of the half, with Aaron Cooley and Lyndel Erold dropping long threes before star guard Kino Lilly, Jr. would get a few points of his own for the Bears. 

NBA Draft prospects Xaivian Lee and Caden Pierce also entered the mix with important threes of their own before Happy joined the scoring party with the triple, which was expertly set up by Lee. 

Peters, started to turn on the jets midway through the first half, taking two more fadeaway threes to give the Tigers a 14-point lead with 5:11 remaining in the half. Peters ended the frame with 11 points, leading the team, and would go on to play a season-high 35 minutes in the win. 

“You find a senior, I mean, I just ask him, ‘how are you?’ And he kind of just stares at me and doesn't blink and he says, ‘I'm fine.’” said head coach Mitch Henderson when asked about Peters’ role on the team. “This is a junior, senior-driven league and it's not a unique thing. That's what really steers things, the maturity of those guys. And he’s just like 22 going on 40, just solid. Everything about him.”

Brown would go scoreless for four minutes until, with four minutes remaining in the first half, Lilly scored three points to cut the Bears’ deficit to 11. Princeton freshman Jack Stanton also played a pivotal role in the win. He finished the game with a plus-17, the highest of any player on either side, along with six points off of two big threes. 

“Huge. I mean, Jack Stanton specifically, I say he's the Energizer bunny,” Pierce said. “He came in tonight, he's flying around and that's just a carryover from last night. We saw what he did last night when the game wasn't going our way, but I mean, everybody who came in was ready to play today and it showed. We had huge contributions from the bench and we need to keep that going forward.” 

“He breathes fire, the kid,” Henderson added. “He's just got moxie, just like pouring out of him and he's gotta play and he's just absolutely fearless.”

At halftime, the Tigers had a substantial lead of 37-23, but had yet to see big contributions from their stars. Meanwhile, Brown was being bullied on offense, but Lilly got to work out of the locker room, making two straight three-pointers to cut the lead to eight. Aaron Cooley would further the damage with two more layups to bring Princeton’s lead down to four as the Bears opened the half with a 10-0 run. 

Jackson Hicke, a sophomore for Princeton, quickly came to the Tigers’ aid as he drove to the bucket for an important layup and earned a foul on the way down for a three-point play to start rebuilding the hosts’ lead. 

“It was a really important bucket,” Henderson recalled. “They were on a big run and those were the kind of plays that deflate other teams. We've been struggling to get easy twos. So we got to the foul line tonight.”

Princeton would continue to do a good job halting Brown’s scoring, eventually allowing Lee to get hot towards the end of the game. 

“It seemed like he thought it was his best defensive game of the season, which we really needed,” Henderson said of Lee. “And I told him this before, he hasn't had many on this season, so it's important for him to have a good game like that. He was active, which we needed.”

Princeton will continue Ivy League play on Friday at Penn, and will be looking to climb its way back up the rankings after their two losses to Cornell and Yale.

Inside the Numbers: High Point at Presbyterian

 

High Point's D'Maurian Williams paced the Panthers' winning effort with 20 points Saturday. (Photo:  High Point Athletics)

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CLINTON, S.C. – One week ago – and with several days to prepare – High Point coach Alan Huss referred to Presbyterian as “complex.” This may not seem to be much of a compliment, but when somebody like Huss who is so attentive to detail – and so much of a basketball “head” – says it, the intent is clear.

So, after Huss’ Panthers made the trip to Clinton and spent 40 minutes exchanging pleasantries in an 84-72 victory, what exactly did he mean by “complex”? Let’s ask, as we go…Inside the Numbers!

“Radford a year ago ran a lot of the same stuff (as Presbyterian) that a lot of people ran years ago. A lot of the stuff they run is stuff we ran when I was playing,” Huss said. “They have new, modern wrinkles on it is probably how I’d say it. They give you a look and they try to exploit it. They went with a big-big lineup tonight and they tried to exploit those 1-4 switches, off-ball, sealing at the rim, slip you a little bit.

“You have to deal with all that and then you have to deal with a dynamic player in Mincy in on-ball actions. They’re hard. They’re hard to deal with. You don’t ever really get comfortable, because a lot of what you guard is not what you guard the rest of the season. They’re pretty good at the stuff everybody else is doing, too. The slot-ball screen stuff with Mincy is really tough to deal with, too. (Presbyterian coach Quinton Ferrell) does a good job of just picking on whatever matchup they think they can exploit. Especially when (guard) Kezza (Giffa) got into a little bit of foul trouble, I think it took the teeth out of him a little bit. You can probably say that for (forward) Kimani (Hamilton), too. It took the teeth out of what we were doing a little bit in those switches. I don’t want to make excuses. It was effective – doing what they did was effective. It was hard to deal with.”

• High Point had two unsustainable numbers Saturday. One went in its favor and the other did not. The second number got a bit of a disappointed laugh and head shake from Huss. Let’s start with that one.

Presbyterian snared a somewhat unbelievable 17 offensive rebounds, leading to 16 second-chance points. Eight of those boards came from post players Kaleb Scott and Jaylen Peterson. Huss was – as one might imagine – not enamored of that number.

“We were good and we had one bad stretch at the end of the first half,” Huss said. “They got three in two possessions. We came back to start the second half, and – more than anything, I think we’ve got to toughen up. They went big-big. It’s a give-and-take deal. Their bigger guys had a hard time guarding our thin and elusive guys on the perimeter facing them in our space. Our guys had a hard time rebounding. It was a battle of those two styles of play.

“The ones that were disappointing were the ones where we just didn’t have our hands up or it was a straight 50-50 ball and they were the aggressor. I thought they outcompeted us for probably 26 of the 40 minutes today. That’s the disappointing piece.”

“We had to really jump our guys in the first half,” Ferrell said. “We were watching guys shoot the ball and I’ve got my three and my four not crashing the glass. Why does it take us to go crazy and lose our mind to get us to do that? Why don’t we show up from the opening tap? I think that’s been some of our issues. If we had the effort we had in the second half, it’s obviously a different game. We dug ourselves – they’re really good. They don’t need a 15-point lead at the half. They don’t need any help. For us to be down 15 and cut it to one in the second half, it shows the potential of my group, but obviously to get over the hump, you’ve got to be more consistent during the 40 minutes of the game.”

• The other unsustainable number came from High Point’s first-half offensive performance. The Panthers shot 71 percent in the opening 20, and though their final shooting percentage was 60.4, mentioning the hot shooting also drew a laugh from Huss before he reflected a bit.

“I was disappointed – obviously that’s not sustainable. We all knew that,” Huss said. “The piece that was a little bit disappointing was how they (got back into the game). That’s precisely what we talked about at halftime. They’re going to turn up the heat a little bit in the half court and the full court. They’re going to put their hands on us. They’re going to be a little bit more aggressive. I just thought we had some really soft turnovers to start the (second) half that really got them going offensively. Credit to them for doing it, but it was just a little disappointing because that was the entire halftime speech. Clearly, I’ve got to improve my delivery.”

“I thought in the first half the ball stuck too much,” Ferrell said. “That was something that I really got onto my guys about. We’ve got breakdown basketball where we’ve got different things that we do, and we weren’t doing it. Whoever had the ball just kept it. Everybody else was just standing. Switching defenses can do that to you if you’re not intentional about running your offense and doing different things to combat that and attack that. I thought in the second half we were much better. That’s why we scored 41 points and we won the second half. I just thought that in the first half, we gave away a few possessions just by our own doing of not moving the ball, cutting, setting ball screens, slipping out, and doing the different things we worked on.”

• Presbyterian – yet again – fought back from a deficit and was right in the game at the under-4 break before the opponent pulled away late. The Blue Hose trailed by 15 at the half and as many as 17 in the second before working back within a single point on a late Kory Mincy triple before High Point went on to score 14 of the final 17 points in the game.

“I just thought – obviously, they’re a very talented team and they’re explosive,” Ferrell said. “You’ve just got to be very sharp (against them). I thought down the stretch in a couple of those possessions we did stuff pretty well, but they jumped up and made some big shots. I think some of our issues – we got some good looks, and Mincy had a wide-open three that would have cut it back to one. We kind of missed our opportunities down the stretch and they made theirs.”

“All in all, I just thought their ability to make plays – D’Maurian Williams made a huge three off the dribble in isolation with a late clock. Bobby Pettiford gets downhill with his left hand and gets to the rim and gets an and-one. Those are more just one-on-one plays. They’ve got guys that can shoot the crap out of it. That makes it tricky.”

“I just thought we played more inspired in the second half. I thought we competed at a higher level in the second half than we did the first half. They had a ton of points in the paint in the first half. In the second half, I thought because we competed more, we cut that almost in half.”

• Speaking of Williams, the grad student drew praise from Huss for his performance. While Ferrell called out the three in front of the Blue Hose bench, Huss dished out additional superlatives past the 20-point, 7-for-10 shooting effort.

“His actions today – he made some really big offensive plays and some really big defensive plays,” Huss said. “When we were reeling, I thought Coach Ferrell ran a great after time out play, and they sealed our 1-4 switch on the back side and had a layup. He made a terrific defensive play to get that steal when we were having a really difficult time getting stops. I thought that really steadied us. I thought that was maybe the defensive play of the game. I’m probably more proud of him about that than anything else. He makes really steadying plays. He was very efficient tonight. He’s mature and he’s very coachable.”

• Mincy and forward Jaylen Peterson both had big days for Presbyterian. Mincy led all scorers with 24, drilling 5-of-10 from deep and 3-of-4 from the line. Peterson snared 12 caroms and added eight points. They — along with forward Kobe Stewart and guard Jamahri Harvey — turned in big days for the Blue Hose.

Ferrell on Peterson:  “He’s been a guy that I’ve been high on coming into the season. This is a huge year for him and his development. He started the year being our starting four-man. When (center) Jonah Pierce went down, I had to bring him off the bench, because he and Kaleb (Scott) were my only fives. He’s done a really good job. I challenge him a lot, because I think he’s got a chance to be a special player in the Big South. Seeing what he did the other night at Winthrop and for him to carry that forward tonight for the second game in a row, I just need him to keep building on that. I think he can be a difference-maker for our program. I think he could be a Defensive Player of the Year guy when it’s all said and done.”

Ferrell on Mincy:  “Kory’s my point guard, I probably spend more time with him and Quadir Pettaway one-on-one than any other guys on my team because they play point guard. I really wanted to get Kory back to the level that I know he can play at. He’s been fine, but I know he’s got another gear to get to. I think in his last two performances he’s starting to be the guy that I expect him to be day in and day out – on both sides. For me to give you the label of a great player, you’ve got to do it on both ends. I think he’s up there in terms of the best guards in the league. I don’t think anybody does what he does on the defensive end, takes the challenge, guards guys and gets after them. He’s then able to still go on the offensive end and score the ball and get assists. He’s a guy that I think is a special player, but I think in the last two games, he’s starting to get to where I want him to get to. He wants that. I coach him hard. He’s a guy I got onto pretty hard at the half trying to spark our team. He responded to me big-time in the second half. I’m super proud of him.”

• The final point comes on the Mincy three that cut the High Point lead to one late. The three would have given the Blue Hose the lead, but a play initially called goaltending was wiped out after a monitor review during the break. Ferrell commented on the possible momentum swing after the game.

“Those situations – momentum plays are obviously a big deal,” Ferrell said. “We’ve got to control what we can control. Those things happen in games. Hopefully, they start happening to the opponent more than they happen to us.”

Both sides return to league play Wednesday night. High Point travels to Radford, Va., to take on the Highlanders in the Dedmon Center. Presbyterian remains home and welcomes nearby rival USC Upstate to the Templeton Center. Both games are set for a 7:00 (Eastern) tip, with streaming coverage available via ESPN+.

HIGH POINT 84, PRESBYTERIAN 72

HIGH POINT (19-5, 7-2)

Hamilton 5-8 6-9 17, Bodo Bodo 4-7 1-2 9, Giffa 3-7 6-6 12, Johnston 2-2 0-0 5, Williams 7-10 4-5 20, Anderson 0-1 0-0 0, Benham 3-3 0-0 9, Hildebrandt 1-2 0-0 2, Pettiford 4-6 2-3 10, Thiam 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 29-48 19-25 84.

PRESBYTERIAN (9-15, 2-7 BIG SOUTH)

Scott 2-4 0-1 4, King 2-5 0-0 0 4, Stewart 5-19 2-2 12, Mincy 8-17 3-4 24, Harvey 4-8 6-7 17, Peterson 2-7 4-4 8, Pettaway 1-2 0-0 3, Wilson 0-0 0-0 0, Parrish 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 24-62 15-18 72.

Halftime:  High Point 46-31. 3-Point goals:  Presbyterian 9-25 (King 0-1, Stewart 0-5, Mincy 5-10, Harvey 3-7, Pettaway 1-2), High Point 7-12 (Hamilton 1-1, Giffa 0-1, Johnston 1-1, Williams 2-4, Benham 3-3, Hildebrandt 0-1, Thiam 0-1). Fouled out:  NA.  Rebounds:  High Point 33 (Bodo 9), Presbyterian 32 (Peterson 12). Total fouls:  Presbyterian 21, High Point 16. Technicals:  NA.

Points off turnovers:  Presbyterian 17, High Point 13.  Points in the paint:  High Point 40, Presbyterian 24. Second-chance points:  Presbyterian 16, High Point 9.  Fast-break points:  Presbyterian 11, High Point 9.  Bench points:  High Point 21, Presbyterian 11.

 

Richmond’s heroics overcome second-half swoon as Johnnies sweep Providence

Kadary Richmond’s 24 points included game-winner with three seconds left as St. John’s survived Providence Saturday. (Photo by St. John’s Athletics)

By Jason Dimaio (@Jaydimaio)

NEW YORK — “If you build it, they will come.”‬

Rick Pitino has said throughout the season that he and his St. John’s team are trying to resurrect the heyday of the Red Storm, bringing old fans back into the fold one at a time. And on a day when Madison Square Garden was nearly filled to capacity with a majority of its patrons dressed in red, Pitino’s pupils gave the raucous crowd much to cheer about, but more importantly, an instant classic ending after an auspicious beginning.

Kadary Richmond, whose resurgence continues to peak at the most opportune of times, took matters into his own hands in the final seconds, draining a jumper from the free throw line—his bread and butter throughout his career—with three ticks remaining on the clock to break a 66-all tie and send the announced attendance of 19,196‬ into delirium as the 15th-ranked Johnnies needed all 40 minutes to shake a Providence team that nearly capped off an 18-point comeback. Richmond’s game-winner was the final margin in a 68-66 victory over the Friars, whose 3-point attempt by Bensley Joseph missed the mark at the buzzer.

The win was the eighth straight for St. John’s (19-3, 10-1 Big East), who has not lost since December 31. During that stretch, the Red Storm has regained sole possession of the Big East lead for the time being, with Marquette—who visits the Garden Tuesday—in position to join the Johnnies atop the standings should the Golden Eagles defeat UConn.

“They don’t want to lose,” Richmond said of his teammates after he notched the last of his 24 points Saturday, a number that was complemented by eight rebounds and eight assists. “I’m a leader on this team. I’m one of the leaders and we have to go out there and play to win every night.”

“We were going to win it or lose it with Kadary’s shot or his pass,” Pitino added. “He made a terrific shot.”

‭The start of this game was anything but normal. The game started in a delay, and in just‬ the first two minutes, there were three separate shot clock malfunctions, causing a‬ disoriented flow to start. The first media timeout was called after just 74 seconds of game action had elapsed due to the delays, and in the first six minutes of game play, there were a combined‬ eight points scored by both teams, with the Johnnies taking a 6-2 advantage.‬

The odd start took much of the energy out of the crowd, and it was evident in the play on‬ the court. Over the next seven minutes, Providence went on a 15-4 run to take a 17-10‬ lead. The St. John’s offense was sleepwalking in the early stages of the first half, turning the ball over, which led to easy‬ transition baskets for the Friars.

‭

Following back-to-back threes from Richmond and Deivon Smith, who made his‬ return to action Saturday for the first time in two weeks, Zuby Ejiofor broke down the Friars‬’ zone defense going into the intermission, where the Red Storm, despite shooting‬ just 29 percent from the floor, brought a 25-21 lead into the locker room on the heels of a 15-4 spurt of its own.

‭As has been the theme all season with this team, a switch flipped out of the break. St.‬ John’s blitzed the Friars to a 17-7 run to start the half, riding the hot hand of Richmond, who got to the rim seemingly at will as the Johnnies stretched their advantage to as many as 19 points midway through the final stanza, forcing 20 Providence turnovers on the afternoon in the process.

But just when it looked as though St. John’s had iced the game, Providence would hit eight of its next nine shots, mainly off‬ the back of Jabri Abdur-Rahim, who the Johnnies had no answer for when the Georgia transfer feasted with Richmond on the bench. Abdur-Rahim was unconscious from three, shooting a blazing 8-for-11 clip and scoring a‬ game-high 27 points.‬

After the Friars drew within single digits, RJ Luis was sent to the line twice in the last three minutes of regulation with a chance to extend the lead‬ to a two-possession game both times, but could only hit one of two free throws on either occasion, keeping the Red Storm’s lead tenuous. The junior did hit a mid-range jumper inside the final minute to give the Johnnies a 66-63, but Providence would answer immediately, going the length of the floor as Joseph hit a contested three in the face of the St. John’s defense, knotting the game up at‬ 66 with 32 seconds left to play.‬

‭The ending of this game was eerily similar to the teams’ first matchup in‬ Providence on December 20, with Joseph hitting a clutch three with under a minute‬ left before St. John’s had the last possession and won at the buzzer on an Ejiofor putback. Following the Joseph three, the Red Storm held the ball for most of the possession, and with seven seconds remaining, Richmond made his move, crossing his defender to get the easy mid-range‬ look on which he has been most efficient all season. Richmond pulled up with time nearly‬ expiring on the shot clock, hitting the open jumper and dealing the Friars a second dose of heartbreak in a six-week span.

“We just had to win the game,” Pitino said after expressing disappointment in St. John’s defense down the stretch. “We didn’t do our job defensively. We have to focus on defense, because we could have lost the game today by not doing our defensive job. It’s always better to learn from winning than it is from losing. We learned a valuable lesson.”

Now furthering its best start to a Big East season since the storied Final Four run in 1985, St. John’s now prepares for a Marquette team that could very well maintain its Top 10 ranking when it comes to New York on Tuesday. The Red Storm has not faced an opponent ranked that high while also being a Top 15 team itself since 1998-99, but the numbers next to the names are irrelevant, says Richmond.

“There’s always room for improvement,” the senior point guard cautioned. “We’re not overlooking anybody, we’re not looking ahead. We’re just taking it a game at a time and whoever we got next is who we got next. We’re gonna prepare the same way.”

Manhattan’s growth on defense helping bridge gap with short rotation as Jaspers navigate MAAC

John Gallagher has overseen significant progress as Manhattan sits in top half of MAAC standings halfway through conference season. Jaspers have league’s best offense, and are finding their way defensively at an opportune time. (Photo by Bob Dea/Daly Dose Of Hoops)

NEW YORK — Ever the optimist, John Gallagher expected a significant leap from his Manhattan team after a foundational year where the Jaspers made the most of a short rotation and a roster beset by injuries.

The ebullient Gallagher’s depth in year two has not manifested the way he had hoped, but the competitive nature of his group has developed according to plan. With the uptick has come an offense that leads the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference in efficiency, and at 5-5 halfway through the conference season, the other side of the basketball is beginning to take root amid experienced veterans and precocious newcomers.

“They’re understanding that even though we missed a ton of threes, it’s our defense that won the game for us,” Gallagher declared Friday after the Jaspers routed Iona, ending a three-game Gael win streak. “We’re really starting to string together stops, and that’s the difference. I think we can do some things in this league and make some headway if we can continue to focus on the defensive side of the ball. We can really play without scripting offense, so if we can just get them to defend, we can really make some headway in the next 10 conference games.”

Gallagher was fortunate to return two starters this season in sophomore point guard Jaden Winston and junior guard Shaq Bender, with a third—forward Wesley Robinson—elevated into the starting lineup after coming off the bench last season. That trio has made life easier for freshman Will Sydnor—the likely MAAC Rookie of the Year—and sophomore transfer Masiah (Swish) Gilyard as they find their way at the Division I level, helping one of the younger teams in the nation last season bridge the gap in this campaign despite not usually playing more than eight men on any given night.

“That’s a great question,” Gallagher said of Manhattan’s continuity. “The DNA was established through Jaden, through Shaq—he’s not even making shots, but he’s been such a great defender and team leader—and Wes, has been unbelievable. I think you can feel it becoming a program, and that’s the thing I think has been most evident to me.”

Winston, the heady DeMatha Catholic product whose clutch gene and will to win belies his tender age most nights, left yet another indelible mark on his opposition Friday even if he did not dominate the stat sheet.

“I think Jaden Winston is a really good point guard,” Iona head coach Tobin Anderson willingly conceded. “I don’t know stat-wise and numbers-wise where he stands, but we played him three times last year and one time this year. I left the court more impressed each time I see him play. I just think he’s a winner, he’s a tough kid. He makes things happen. He’s very unselfish and shares the ball.”

Winston is not the only Jasper who is making things happen, as Sydnor and George Mason transfer Devin Dinkins are the top two scorers on a team with five players averaging 10 or more points per game. Gilyard is another in that quintet, also leading the team with over seven rebounds per contest for a unit whose pieces have combined to ease the pressure among one another, a glaring omission in Riverdale last season. 

“If you look at our roster, what Will brings to the table is a guy (who) early on, we’ll run things for him and he’s gonna get a basket,” Gallagher said, using Sydnor—the Jaspers’ leading scorer at 15.5 points per game—to highlight his example. “In college basketball, I don’t care what level, if you can say, ‘we’re gonna give him the ball, he’s gonna get a basket,’ having Will, he kind of takes the pressure off. We didn’t have that last year, to be honest with you. We didn’t have Dinkins either, and both of them are hard out. Dinkins is coming off the bench, he’s gotta be the sixth man of the year by the numbers. It takes a lot of pressure off our team.”

Playing looser and with more of a synergy on both sides, Manhattan begins the second half of MAAC play Sunday at Sacred Heart, an outfit with an offense whose potency can match the Jaspers for 40 minutes. Gallagher again doubled down on the commitment to defending, expressing concern for the Pioneers’ duo of Tanner Thomas and Amiri Stewart. In his team’s last two outings against Mount St. Mary’s and Iona, Manhattan has improved on that side of the ball, with more effort to come. And if the first two returns are any indication, the payoff will be tangible in more ways than one.

“What I’ve been harping on, and we’re taking the John Chaney approach, is just focus on defense,” Gallagher reiterated. “That’s all we’re doing right now. Matchups and defense, every day. Take it personal, and that’s gotta start with me to them. After that Fairfield game (January 23), we came in and we had a hard talking-to. You score 84, you have to win at home.”

“We had to plant seeds and really put the sunlight and the water, and the belief, every single day. And now, I feel like the next six weeks, I believe in the team. Last year, we were coming to work and we were putting concrete down. It was hard, but you had to get excited about it because you had to put the DNA in them. Now, you could feel it. You could feel everybody.”