Manhattan Earns First Round Win Over Saint Peter's
Associated Press
Box Score
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) -Devon Austin scored a season-high 26 points - 18 from beyond the arc - and grabbed seven rebounds to lead Manhattan past Saint Peter's 73-59 in the first round of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference tournament Friday night.
The eighth-seeded Jaspers (12-18) advance to face top-seeded host Siena in Saturday's quarterfinal round.
Ninth-seeded Saint Peter's, which trailed for all but the opening 90 seconds, finished the year 6-24.
Austin, who added four steals, was 6-of-9 from 3-point range. Antoine Pearson added 15 points for Manhattan and Darryl Crawford had 12 points and seven rebounds.
Saint Peter's cut Manhattan's lead to 62-50 after an 11-4 spurt with 6:08 left in the game but never got any closer.
Todd Sowell scored 20 points to lead the Peacocks, who also got 13 points from Wesley Jenkins and 10 from Nick Leon.
Manhattan used an early 10-0 run to push to a 15-4 lead before Saint Peter's pulled to within 21-19 on Ryan Bacon's dunk with 7:25 to go in the opening half. Devon answered with a 3-pointer and added another two minutes later as the Jaspers took a 33-24 lead into the break.