The Jaspers Finally Snag 1st Conference Win

Aaron Walker Jr. goes up to try and score.

The Manhattan Jaspers were finally able to pick up their first MAAC victory tonight after their fourth attempt at it. The Jaspers are enduring a bit of a rough season, and not one that most would expect out of a Steve Masiello team. The team has been incredibly up and down all season long and this inconsistent playing bled into MAAC play as well. The Jaspers dropped their three opening conference games in a row, having really only been competitive with Marist as they only lost by two points. They were certainly not as close with Fairfield and Quinnipiac.

Enough with the negativity though, as the Jaspers did finally manage to add a "W" to their record once more. It came via a pretty dominant 78-69 win over fellow MAAC strugglers Niagara. The Jaspers had to overcome a four-point halftime deficit, but managed to outscore Niagara by 13 in the 2nd half. Despite shooting identical 44% shooting percentages, the Jaspers benefited from the fact that they put up 8 more shot attempts than their opponents. Zavier Turner led the team with 21 points, but Calvin Crawford had a more do-it-all performance with 9 boards to go along with his 20 points. This was a chippy encounter with both sides picking up 2 technicals. It will be interesting to see if the Jaspers will use this to fuel momentum or if it was more of a fluke.