By Paul Gotham
BUFFALO, NY – Manhattan College showed why they were the pre-season choice to finish atop the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.
In front of 2,196 at the Koessler Athletic Center Friday night, the Jaspers harassed, pressured, harried and made the Canisius Golden Griffins downright uncomfortable for nearly 40 minutes of game time.
There are numbers to back it up.
Manhattan dominated the boards (46-32), and blocked shots (12-4). They outscored the Golden Griffins in the paint (36-28), on the fast break (15-9) and second-chance points (15-10).
But the numbers don’t come close to telling the whole story. Manhattan dictated tempo from the opening tip with defensive pursuit created by constant motion.
And like it usually does, defensive intensity created offensive rhythm. The Jaspers dished out 22 assists on 30 field goals.
George Beamon and Ashton Pankey paced a Manhattan offense which shot better than 50 percent (30-of-58) from the floor including 11-of-22 behind the arc en route to an 84-73 road victory in MAAC action.
Manhattan jumped to a 14-point lead before the Griffs hit their first field goal of the game and never looked back.
Save for a couple of, what seemed like, fleeting moments Manhattan was not in danger of giving up their lead.
“It’s funny we’ve done that all year,” Manhattan coach Steve Masiello said of his defense. “Our field goal percentage defense is top 20 in the country. We are near the top in steals in the country and in our conference…I thought our guys played on instinct, and I thought we defended the way we’re capable of.”
Pankey and Rhamel Brown both converted rebound and putback opportunities on two of the game’s first three possessions. RaShawn Stores nailed a catch-and-shoot trey when he took a Michael Alvarado kick out to the right wing. Brown scored in the lane on a feed from George Beamon. Stores led Pankey for a flush, and Emmy Andujar hit a pair of free throws to cap the 15-1 flurry.
“Seemed like from the jump ball, wished the guy would have just thrown it a little bit higher,” Canisius Head Coach Jim Baron joked when referring to Manhattan’s attack. “We came out flat for whatever reason. They’re a good team.”
Manhattan maintained a double-digit advantage for the first 13 minutes of play. When Brown and Alvarado went to the bench with two fouls apiece, Billy Baron led the way as Canisius outscored Manhattan 14-4 to make it a one-possession game.
The pre-season player of the year hit back-to-back 3-pointers in the middle of the run. After Zach Lewis missed the second of two free throws, the long rebound went to Baron and without hesitation he drilled the three. One trip later, Baron used a Jordan Heath ball screen for a long three forcing Manhattan to call timeout with the score at 32-30.
Baron, who did not take a shot for the first 10:18 of the game finished with 15 points in the first half and 22 for the game.
“First couple minutes of the game I was really trying to get used to their blitz,” Baron explained. “I wasn’t nearly as aggressive early on. I started to be more aggressive and I think that’s what I have to do – when they pressure me, split the double and keep hitting the open man.”
“Billy made some very tough shots,” Masiello commented. “We wanted to run people at him and not give him a steady diet of anything. We wanted to switch up our man, our zones, our trap, our blitzes, our switches, constantly keep him on his toes and make him more have to read us than react to us.”
Canisius stayed with Manhattan for the next few moments.
Jordan Heath hit one of two from the line. Dominique Raney took a long lead from Baron, finished with a flush in the open court, and Canisius trailed 36-33.
Just as soon as the Griffs seemed to find traction, the Jaspers responded. Beamon, as he did on more than one occasion, offered the answer. The Roslyn, N.Y native scored five as Manhattan closed the stanza on an 11-2 run. He hit a three on the break and followed with a steal and lay in. Emmy Andujar went end-to-end for a layup. RaShawn Stores hit a pair from the charity stripe and Pankey closed the half with a bucket in the lane on an over-the-top feed from Andujar.
Manhattan led 47-35 at the break.
“We made some great comebacks, but we fell short,” Jim Baron stated. “They rebounded on us. They really had their way with that. We didn’t do what we needed to do…we showed a lot of grit, but to beat good teams you got to do a lot of small things.”
Canisius quickly cut into the double-digit halftime deficit.
Chris Manhertz stepped in a passing lane for a steal. Lewis took the outlet pass and found Baron in the open floor for a layup. Raney converted one of two at the line and followed with a pull-up jumper to trim the lead to seven at 47-40.
But Beamon was there, again, for Manhattan. He drilled treys on the next two possessions and fed Alvarado for a layup to push the lead back to 15 at 55-40 with 16:41 left on the clock.
Beamon hit 5 of 9 behind the arc and finished with a game-high 27 to go with four assists, four rebounds, a steal and a block. One year after having to sit out with an ankle injury the senior guard nets 18.5 and grabs more than seven boards a game for the Jaspers.
“I couldn’t be more proud of George Beamon,” Masiello said. “He’s been through so much in this program. Every time I coach a game having a player like George Beamon on [the] sideline you know he’s going to get you rebounds, you know he’s going to defend, you know he’s going to get you assists, and you know he’s going to score.”
Fr Canisius, Baron scored a team-high 22 hitting 6 of 15 from the floor including 3 of 5 from long range. He dished out a game-high seven assists, grabbed a team-high seven rebounds and added a steal.
“Last year we did a very good job on him,” Masiello explained. “We held him to 14 and 10, turned him over six times here. (Isaac) Sosa and (Harold) Washington really hurt us. We said ‘let’s see who could beat us. Let’s see, and we’ll adjust.’ Billy made some tough shots early to keep them right there with us, withstand some runs. Three of his threes were very difficult. We just got to stay with our process and our product. We don’t worry necessarily of it goes in or not. I liked the looks we were given him. I don’t think we were giving him anything easy.”
Manhertz was limited to just 17 minutes of playing time. The senior forward took an inadvertent elbow to the face just four minutes into the game. He returned to the game wearing a protective mask for precautionary reasons.
Referees went to the monitor and determined it to be a “basketball play” on which Manhertz was injured.
Pankey added 16 points, 11 rebounds and five blocks. Alvarado netted 11 and handed out five assists. Shane Richards came off the bench and drilled four 3-pointers for 14 points.
Raney and Lewis added 15 and 13 points apiece.
Manhattan held Canisius under their season average of 77 points limiting the Griffs to 26 of 64 (40.6 percent) from the floor. The Blue and Gold came in hitting 46 percent.
“I just thought it was two very good basketball teams who came out tonight and played at a very high level,” Masiello stated. “I thought there four or five guys in the game that were just really special to watch.”
The loss coupled with an Iona win dropped Canisius (16-8/10-3) into second place. Iona (14-8/11-2) visits the KAC Sunday afternoon for a 2 p.m. tip off.
Canisius and Manhattan (16-6/9-4) meet again at Draddy Gymnasium on the final day of the regular season, Sunday March 2nd.
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