Dec. 3, 2011
Box Score | Photo Gallery 
EASTON, Pa. - The Lafayette women's basketball team led visiting Manhattan by as many as 14 points and held off a late charge to claim a 48-43 victory on Saturday afternoon at Kirby Sports Center. Sarah McGorry scored a team-best 15 points for the Leopards.
With the win, the Leopards improve to 3-5 on the season. Manhattan falls to 2-5 in defeat.
McGorry's 15 points off the bench came on 6-for-13 shooting from the floor - including a three-pointer on her lone attempt from beyond the arc. Madeline Fahan and Danielle Fiacco added identical statlines of seven points and a game-best 11 rebounds. For Fahan, the 11 rips mark a new career high. Fiacco, who entered the week ranked second in the nation with 5.0 blocked shots, swatted six Jasper offerings on the afternoon.
Maddie Peabody set a career standard with six points courtesy of a pair of three-pointers and fellow freshman Brya Freeland pitched in with five - highlighted by a deep buzzer-beating trey at the end of the first half. Emily Homan added four points for the Leopards, while Melissa Downey and Samantha Jordan rounded out the scoring with two points apiece. Downey also dished out a game-high five assists.
The Leopards shot 4-for-8 from three-point range, ending a stretch in which they went 0-for-29 from deep spanning nearly four complete games. Lafayette was 15-for-54 (27.8 percent) from the field and 14-for-21 (66.6 percent) from the charity stripe. Manhattan was 17-for-62 (27.4 percent) from the floor, 5-for-25 (20 percent) from beyond the arc and 4-for-11 (36.4 percent) from the stripe.
After Manhattan grabbed an early 6-5 lead, the Leopards took control with a 17-3 run over the ensuing 8:04 to claim a 22-9 lead. All 11 of McGorry's first-half points came during the stretch. The Jaspers answered with a 13-5 stretch, and it appeared that the Jaspers would have the momentum heading into the locker room. However, Freeland drained a three-pointer from 27 feet at the buzzer to send the Leopards into the intermission with a 30-22 advantage.
The squads traded buckets for the first several minutes of the second half, as a Fahan jumper extended the Lafayette lead back to six at 39-33. At that point, however, Lafayette went scoreless for a span of 6:41. The defense held firm for that stretch but couldn't stop the Jaspers from eventually taking its first lead of the second period at 40-39. Fiacco answered with a jump shot to reclaim the lead for the home team, and a free throw by Manhattan's Nadia Peters tied the score at 41-41 with 4:41 to play.
The Leopards' last run would prove decisive, as a jumper by McGorry finished off a 5-0 run to put Lafayette on top, 46-41. Peters sank a pair from the stripe to cut the margin back to one possession, but the Jaspers would not score again as two foul shots by Fahan in the waning seconds clinched a 48-43 victory.
Manhattan's Lindsey Loutsenhizer led all players with 17 points. Nadia Peters had 10 rebounds for the visitors.
Lafayette stays on College Hill this week to host Saint Joseph's on Wednesday, Dec. 7. The 7 p.m. contest will be televised on the Lafayette Sports Network and GoLeopards.com.
