Manhattan’s loss to Loyola yesterday might be the closing argument in the case against the Jaspers turning their season around.
The 62-56 loss to Loyola in front of 862 fans at Draddy Gym in The Bronx can’t be viewed as a quality effort against an elite team, nor can it be explained away as a hard-luck defeat or a game the Jaspers could have or should have won.
This loss showed the Jaspers (8-16, 3-11 MAAC) to be lacking . . . it. They have talent. They play hard. They just don’t have the “it” factor that separates winning teams from losing teams. They find ways to lose, rather than finding ways to win.
The Jaspers out-rebounded (40-38) and out-shot (35.7 percent to 35.2) the visiting Greyhounds, but they also had an awful ratio of six assists to 14 turnovers. The Greyhounds (12-12, 5-9) had 13 assists and eight turnovers.
“We’ve been trying to take care of the ball a bit better,” Manhattan coach Barry Rohrssen said. “But our turnovers came back to hurt us. That, as well as our three-point shooting. Three of 15, anytime you put that up it’s going to be difficult to overcome that.”
The Jaspers trailed 30-28 at halftime and it would have been much worse if not for Rico Pickett’s offensive explosion off the bench.
Pickett, the Jaspers’ leading scorer, came off the bench for the second game in a row and scored 15 of his 19 points in the first half to single-handedly keep the Jaspers in the game.
“We started off the game well in our last game [with Pickett on the bench],” Rohrssen said. “We were consistent with what we did in our last game.”
The Jaspers dominated Marist 72-47 on Friday, but yesterday they could not find an offensive rhythm without Pickett. They struggled to get the ball inside and seemed content passing the ball around the perimeter.
Rohrssen called on Pickett just four minutes in, and the junior college transfer delivered. He played with a swagger that the rest of the team lacked, and he drilled a 3-pointer with under eight minutes left in the half that ended a 7-0 Loyola run and kept the Jaspers close at a time when the game could have gotten away from them.
Surprisingly, Pickett was kept on the bench to start the second half, and he had cooled off by the time he re-entered the game with 16 minutes left.
Still, the Jaspers eked out a lead in a second half that saw more missed layups than anyone could count. Manhattan’s Darryl Crawford (19 points, 10 rebounds, three blocks, three steals, two assists) scored 14 points in the second, but Loyola, led by Shane Walker’s 12 points and 10 rebounds, fought back.
A 3-pointer by Brett Harvey tied the score 43-43 with eight minutes left. Julius Brooks converted the and-one after he was fouled on a thunderous dunk with 4:25 left to give the visitors a 51-47 lead.
“We’re not gonna give up,” Crawford said. “A lot of us are seniors. We’re not gonna give up on this team. We’re gonna keep fighting.”
