Guest Contributor Ray Floriani: Marist at St. Peters, WBB

by Ray Floriani
JERSEY CITY, NJ - The first eight minutes were close. Then Marist went on a tear en route to a 79-38 victory over St. Peter's in a MAAC women's meeting. An impressive offensive team, the story of this game at Yanitelli Center, was the Red Foxes' outstanding defense.

Efficiency numbers:

		Off.
	Poss.	Eff.
Marist	67	118
St. Peter's	67	57

Marist entered the game a 65 possession team in MAAC play. Their offensive efficiency was 104 and the defensive number, an outstanding 66. They came to Yanitelli 15-0 in conference play and while they have the offensive weapons, Marist begins with defense.

At the half in this contest, Marist led 33-13. The pace saw Marist with 37 possessions and St. Peter's 36. The efficiency margin (offensive minus defensive) for the Red Foxes was off that chart at +53 with an 89 on offense and 36 on the defensive end.

The Four Factors:

		FTA
	eFG%	FGA	OR%	TO%
Marist	56	14	29	11
St. Peter's	30	11	26	30

Marist dominated in virtually every area. Outside shooting has been a concern of late to coach Brian Giorgis. Tonight the Red Foxes hit 10 of 21 beyond the arc. A significant number as league opposition, especially Fairfield who gave Marist their toughest MAAC test to date, before losing 54-52 a few weeks ago, will show a lot of zone. Erica Allensbach (3 of 6), Corielle Yarde (2 of 5) and Christine Best (2 of 2) all found the shooters touch from three.

Marist's Erica Allenspach prepares to inbound

The Defense Never Rests
With 12 minutes to play in the first half Marist had an 11-9 lead. St. Peter's was playing confidently and was able to get the ball inside. At that point I decided to chart the possessions the final dozen minutes of the half. The results epitomized the Marist D.

			Off.
	Poss.	Pts.	Eff.
Marist	22	22	100
St. Peter's	23	4	17

Six of the St. Peter's possessions ended in turnovers. They did not score a field goal and the first points during that stretch were on two Teresa Manigasso free throws with 2:29 to play in the half.

Beside the forcing 20 St. Peter's turnovers and limiting them to 24% field goal shooting (6 of 12 from three boosted the eFG mark to 30%) from the floor, Giorgis was pleased with Marist's 10 blocked shots and 10 steals. Kate Oliver a 6-4 sophomore forward rejected four shots and altered a few more along the way.

The Marist defensive staple is man to man. The latter part of the second half with a big lead Giorgis zoned. Given their length and defensive reaction, Marist did not do a bad job in that defense. Still, the man to man, as noted is the primary option.

Celebration just after the buzzer

St. Bonaventure Connection
On the men's side when St. John's takes down another ranked opponent there is mention of the Red Storm's early season losses to Fordham and St. Bonaventure. With the women, Marist now has the nation's longest win streak at 21 games. Their last loss? December 4th 45-40, like St. John's at home, against the Lady Bonnies of St. Bonaventure. In an ironic twist the only other Marist setback was opening night against the St. John's women.

Notes
Marist is 25-2 (16-0 in the MAAC). St. Peter's 3-24 (3-13 in conference). Three Marist players wee in double figures. Erica Allenspach and Kelsey Beynnon shared scoring honors with 13 points each. Jynae Judson paced St. Peter's with 10 points. Marist had 11 players log at least 11 minutes of playing time. Marist held a 36-10 advantage in points in the paint and a 27-5 edge in points off turnovers.

Giorgis stated in post game interviews that this team is still on a mission. "They are playing with a little chip," he said. "We lost a great player Rachelle Fitz whose number was retired Friday. Some people wondered how we would do without her. These kids want to show they can do something special like go undefeated in MAAC play. That is their goal and focus."

Brian Giorgis interviewed on radio
Julianne Viani (l), recently starred for Marist
now does analysis for their broadcasts

Marist closes out the regular season with two interesting matchups, visiting Siena Friday and Fairfield on Sunday. St. Peter's will host Rider on Thursday and visit Loyola on Sunday.

A Side Trip in Jersey City...
An afternoon officiating assignment nearby gave me a chance to snap a few Hamilton Park Winter scenes. A beautiful scene, but a real contrast to the setting when Summer League is in full swing.

Courts wait silently, patiently
for the players to return


Close your eyes and picture
the fans surrounding the courts...
can you hear the crowd buzz?

Guest Contributor Ray Floriani: Iona at St. Peter's WBB

by Ray Floriani
JERSEY CITY, NJ - Throughout a difficult season the St. Peter's women have continued to work hard and persevere. Their efforts were rewarded with a 56-47 MAAC victory over Iona at Yanitelli Center on Thursday.

Sign outside Yanitelli.
Even this picture makes you feel the cold.

The efficiency numbers:

		Off.
	Poss.	Eff.
Iona	74	64
St. Peter's	73	77

The pace was probably a little quicker than both coaches would have wanted. It showed in some of the numbers in the Four Factors.

The game was a 32 possession affair at the half with the scored tied at 27 and the offensive efficiency 84.

The Four Factors:

		FTA
	eFG%	FGA	OR%	TO%
Iona	40	19	34	39
St. Peter's	39	21	31	25

Long time officiating friend Gary Schimel
just before play resumed

Neither team shot the ball well. Turnovers have been a problem for Tony Bozzella's Iona club but not at the magnitude of this evening. St. Peter's did not full court press but they did extend good half court ball pressure and force the Gaels into 29 turnovers. That came out to nearly twice as much made turnovers as made field goals (17). St. Peter's enjoyed a 22-8 scoring edge in points off turnovers which basically tells the story of this contest.

Freshman guard Aziza May gave St. Peter's a lift. Coach Stephanie DeWolfe noted that May had been struggling but hoped this would be a "reinforcement of what we work with and tell her in practice." May showed a nice mid range touch, scored 12 points on 5 of 7 shooting and added 6 steals to the St. Peter's cause. Another interesting, actually amazing, stat showed the 5-3 freshman leading all rebounders with 8.

Probably a good night for rebounding guards as Iona's backcourt of Diana Hubbard and Marissa Flagg tied for their team lead (with forward Anda Ivkovic) with 6 boards.

Iona simply struggled all over in the shooting department. They were just 9 of 22 (36.4 %) from the line. Just barely edging their 36.2% (17 of 47) from the field.

St. Peter's did not find the range as easy (37%) either. Only May and Jynae Judson (9 of 16) surpassed 50% from the field.

Despite giving up a size advantage inside, St. Peter's did a respectable job on the boards as Iona had a slight edge in the offensive rebounding percentage.

That Iona size did give them a 26-18 edge in points in the paint. Which is why perimeter contributions from the likes of May were so important to St. Peter's.

Game was delayed 20 minutes due to a campus wide power outage that lasted a brief time.

Numbers
St. Peter's improved to 2-14 (2-3 in the MAAC).
Iona is now 5-12 and 1-4 in conference. Gaels were led by sophomore guard Diana Hubbard with 20 points. Hubbard is an East orange, NJ native who starred at powerful Bloomfield tech. Judson of St. Peter's paced all scorers with 20 points.

The celebration after a well earned victory

Guest Contributor Ray Floriani: Manhattan at St. Peters, WBB

by Ray Floriani
JERSEY CITY, NJ - For most of the contest the St. Peter's women were right there. In the stretch Manhattan was able to build its narrow lead, pull away and defeat St. Peter's 58-44 at Yanitelli Center on Monday.

Efficiency numbers:

		Off.
	Poss.	Eff.
Manhattan	59	98
St. Peter's	60	73

St. Peter's came into the game with a 71 possession pace while Manhattan was in the sixties (65 per). Advantage Lady Jaspers for dictating their tempo and game pace. St. Peter's tried to extend the defense to three quarter court on a few occasions. Manhattan, would not rush things and after getting over half court ran their regular offense.

The Four Factors:

		FTA
	eFG%	FGA	OR%	TO%
Manhattan	36	40	49	20
St. Peter's	38	22	46	38

Officials (l to R) Carmen Portorreal, Kathy Lynch and Kevin Sparrock
confer during a time out.

Neither team really lit it up from the floor. But in a game of this type, a one or two possession with four ties and seven lead changes, burning your possessions on turnovers is inexcusable. St. Peter's was guilty of 23 turnovers. In a slower 60 possession game as this, it meant almost 4 of every 10 possessions was wasted. Again, inexcusable in a close game, or any game.

Jynae Judson had a solid outing for St. Peter's. The 5-9 junior scored 10 points and had a game high 10 rebounds. On the negative side, Judson led the way with 7 turnovers.

For a good part of the second half it was a stretch Manhattan was able to finish a few inside while St. Peter's still could not find the mark. In the last two minutes St. peter's coach Stephanie DeWolfe ordered her team to foul. The Lady Jaspers (21 of 25 for the game) were successful from the charity stripe and closed out the contest.

Defense
Manhattan coach John Olenowski directed a prep power at Morris Catholic (NJ) High School. Olenowski's teams were known for a very disruptive and active 1-3-1 half court defense. At Manhattan Olenowski has employed the 'signature' 1-3-1 and occasionally falls back into a matchup zone to keep the opposition out of synch. As the numbers bear out, the Lady Jasper defense was not only effective in field goal defense but getting in the passing lanes, getting deflections and causing turnovers.

Numbers
St. Peter's falls to 1-14 (1-3 in the MAAC). Manhattan improves to 10-5 (3-1 in the MAAC). Jessica Coles paced St. Peter's with 16 points. A 6-fot senior forward Coles operated inside and out to fifteen foot range. Abby Wentworth (21 points) and Lindsey Loutsenhizer (19) led the way for Manhattan.

Late game action at Yanitelli Center