MAAC Tournament notebook: The heartbreak of March

She looks up toward the rim and wills the ball to the glass. It hits the backboard, then does a trip around the rim. First it kisses the right side — the Peacocks bench rises in unison ready to explode —, then spins over the left — they exhale out in disbelief, some throw up a surrender cobra — and out. One.

But it’s okay. Rippey has two shots at the line to tie the game. The two biggest shots of her life, nonetheless. 

The Brooklyn, New York, native had 11 points with five rebounds, and was the second-leading scorer behind the dominant sophomore forward Fatmata Janneh.

She goes to half court to gather her thoughts, then approaches the line. Once there, she takes two dribbles, sits back, shoots, follows through and misses. She does the same on the second.

Saint Peter’s loses 42-40, to Iona.

The heartbreak of March. It left Peacocks head coach Jennifer Leedham struggling for words in the locker room.

“I think it’s one of the hardest moments as a coach,” Leedham told reporters. “What do you really say? You don’t make it better, you don’t really want to be negative. You’ve also just lost.”

One moment, Rippey was about to be the hero, the next, she missed the two shots to tie it. Saint Peter’s made the somber walk back to the locker room, out of the MAAC Tournament. 

Here’s what else we learned on day one of the MAAC Tournament:

The Next, a 24/7/365 women’s basketball newsroom

The Next: A basketball newsroom brought to you by The IX. 24/7/365 women’s basketball coverage, written, edited and photographed by our young, diverse staff and dedicated to breaking news, analysis, historical deep dives and projections about the game we love.

Manhattan’s post is no joke

If you want any idea at how Manhattan’s post defense against Canisius was, think of a kid’s playroom: blocks everywhere. It out-blocked the Golden Griffins, 11-2.

The blocks mainly came from graduate forward Leyla Oztürk, who had a career-high of eight on the day. Those eight blocks also earned her the single-game MAAC Tournament record for most blocks in a game. 

She’s the biggest culprit of the lockdown post defense, but not the only one.

Senior forward Petra Juric had a block and four rebounds; her sister, sophomore forward Kristina “Kiki” Juric led the Jaspers with seven rebounds and was second on the team Tuesday afternoon with 10 points.

“I think Kiki is going to be a future All-MAAC player,” Manhattan head coach Heather Vulin told reporters. “She’s got such great length and athleticism and can score inside and outside, just like her older sister.”

The Juric sisters and Oztürk led Manhattan’s high-low action which got itself a lot of looks inside. The Jaspers outscored Canisius 30-20 in the paint.

Coming up Wednesday for Manhattan is a date with the No. 1 seed in the MAAC, Fairfield, at Noon ET. The post players will have to play a big part in that game for the Jaspers to pull off the upset, and overcome a Stags team that beat them twice already this year.

“It’s March, anything can happen,” Oztürk told reporters. “It’s really hard to beat a team three times.”

Canisius is building toward the future

After Canisius graduate guard Jaela Johnson, senior guard Cory Santoro and head coach Tiffany Swoffard sat down to speak with the media following their 52-42 loss to Manhattan Tuesday, Swoffard began her opening statement with this.

“First and foremost, I want to thank our administration for giving me an opportunity,” Swoffard told reporters. “And then secondly, thank my players. I have 15 phenomenal women that took a chance on me and believed in what it is that I wanted to do.”

Six of Canisius players came through the transfer portal, six were freshmen and the other three returned to the program. The Golden Griffins weren’t supposed to make it this far.

The Golden Griffins were selected last in the preseason coaches poll, and have been through all the ups and downs, including a 10-game losing streak together. But throughout that adversity, what’s defined them was their process.

This loss was just another step in that process. Canisius never talked about the results, it was focused on building a championship-caliber program. 

So as Johnson and Santoro walked away from the podium, and Swoffard did a few minutes later, they did with their heads held high, as they kept walking on the path to becoming a championship-caliber program.

“We didn’t get the win, but we got a whole bunch of wins that people wouldn’t understand,” Johnson told reporters. 

Add Locked On Women’s Basketball to your daily routine

Here at The Next, in addition to the 24/7/365 written content our staff provides, we also host the daily Locked On Women’s Basketball podcast. Join us Monday through Saturday each week as we discuss all things WNBA, collegiate basketball, basketball history and much more. Listen wherever you find podcasts or watch on YouTube.

Iona’s survived and advanced, despite low-shooting marks

If you were to offer any opposing coach a deal that said you would hold a team to 42 points on 29.8% shooting and 26.7% three-point percentage, they would take it in a heartbeat.

For Iona, that’s what it did Tuesday afternoon against Saint Peter’s, winning 42-40 while shooting its lowest three-point mark on the year and eighth lowest from the field. But it was good enough to advance.

However, the Gaels defense also held the Peacocks to 40 points, Iona’s lowest mark of the season. 

“You got to get it done on the defensive end, shots will fall,” sophomore guard Mya Zaccagnini told reporters post game.

Iona will play No. 2-seed Quinnipiac tomorrow at 2:#0 PM ET, and 42 probably won’t be enough to beat the Bobcats. Quinnipiac hasn’t scored fewer than 54 points all season.

But anything can happen in March, which also means that a No. 10 seed can beat a No. 2 in the MAAC Tournament.

“At the end of the day, the rankings and seedings don’t matter. Seedings don’t win games,” Iona head coach Angelika Szumilo told reporters.