JERSEY CITY, N.J. – On Monday evening the St. Peter’s women hosted Manhattan College at Yanitelli Center in Jersey City. The effort was there, the result a too familiar 58-44 loss. Coach Stephanie DeWolfe has St. Peter’s working hard and hustling, no small feat for a team that dropped to 1-14 on the season.
In a game that was basically a two-possession affair until the latter minutes, turnovers continued to be a problem for St. Peter’s. They committed 23 on the game. Given a 60-possession game, the St. Peter’s turnover rate was an astounding 38 percent. That is nearly four of every ten possessions wasted without a viable field goal attempt. Junior forward Jynae Judson gave St. Peter’s a nice eight-point, 10-rebound effort. But she added seven turnovers.
“St. Peter’s will win games,” Manhattan coach John Olenowski, a former assistant to DeWolfe at St. Peter’s, noted. “They defend, can cause you problems but are in a tough stretch. Guaranteed they will win some games in this (MAAC) conference.”
One of the highlights of Manhattan is defense. Olenowski notes the Lady Jaspers have held eight teams under 50 points. A closer tempo-free look shows the team defensive efficiency is an outstanding 77. The numbers in this contest:
| Possessions | Offensive Efficiency | |
| Manhattan | 59 | 98 |
| St. Peter’s | 60 | 73 |
Olenowski’s “signature” defense is a 1-3-1 he used during an outstanding run as a high school coach at Morris Catholic (NJ). “We trap out of it (1-3-1),” he said, ” and fall back to a matchup zone to keep the offense off balance.” It worked admirably, given the forced turnovers and St. Peter’s’ 33 percent (15 of 45) shooting from the floor.
Jessica Coles led St. Peter’s, now 1-3 in the MAAC, with 16 points. Manhattan (10-5, 2-2 in the MAAC) was paced by Abby Wentworth with 21 points and Lindsey Loutsenhizer with 19 points and 7 rebounds.
The game had four ties and seven lead changes. As noted, it was close throughout until the final minutes when Manhattan found a consistent shooting range and hit their free throws as St. Peter’s was in a late game fouling mode. In fact, the Lady Jaspers were an outstanding 21 of 25 (84 percent) from the charity stripe on the night.
