LAKE CHARLES, La. (Nov. 19, 2011) – Manhattan’s Monica Roeder entered Saturday’s game with four three-pointers on the season.

She now has 12.

Roeder drained eight of Manhattan’s 11 3-pointers to finish with a career-high 35 points en route to the Jaspers drilling the Lady Bucs in the Preseason WNIT consolation round, 86-53, inside McNeese State’s Burton Coliseum.

The Lady Bucs were led by freshman guard Brianna Bogard’s (Georgetown, Texas) 17-point effort, while fellow freshman teammate Maria Bond (Macon, Ga.) added 13 points and six rebounds off the bench.

With the loss, the Lady Bucs dropped to 0-3, marking their first winless start through three games since the beginning of the 2008-09 season when ETSU finished 20-11 and went to the NCAA Tournament. Manhattan, who was picked fourth in the preseason Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference coaches’ poll, earned its first win of the season to improve to 1-2 on the season.

Despite holding Manhattan to two points in the final three and a half minutes of the first half and out-shooting the Jaspers, the Lady Bucs still trailed at the half, 37-31.

Manhattan led wire-to-wire in the opening 20 minutes, while three-point shooting and turnovers proved to be the difference between the two clubs.

The first 13 minutes of the game were tightly, but with Manhattan leading by one, the Jaspers got hot from beyond the arc to take a 35-25 lead with 3:29 remaining before the break.

With the Jaspers up 22-21, Roeder netted three of the four Manhattan threes during a three minute, thirty-one second span to take the 10 point lead; however, the Blue and Gold never backed down. The Lady Bucs finally buckled down on defense as they held the Jaspers to only two points during the final stretch, cutting the Manhattan lead to six.

After a rough shooting night against UAB on Friday, the Lady Bucs finally found some rhythm as ETSU shot 46.2 percent (12-26) in the first half. Unfortunately, the Blue and Gold only made two of their seven three-point field goal attempts, while Manhattan finished 5-of-12 in the opening half to shoot 45.5 percent overall from the floor (15-33). ETSU held a plus-seven rebounding margin, 21 to 14, but the Lady Bucs were only able to muster four second chance points off seven offensive rebounds. Meanwhile, Manhattan scored seven points off four offensive boards and cashed in 14 points off 13 Lady Buccaneer turnovers.  

In the second half, the Lady Bucs were able to stay within six points for the first eight minutes of the stanza; however, before you could blink the Jaspers jumped all over ETSU.

With a little over 12 minutes remaining, Bogard sank one of her free throw attempts to cut the deficit to 49-43, but from there the Lady Bucs went scoreless over the next four-plus minutes. Manhattan capitalized on the ETSU scoring drought as the Jaspers scored 17 unanswered points to take control of the game, 66-43, with 7:59 remaining in the contest. Roeder fueled the run as she scored 11 of the 17 points – including a pair of threes.

The closest the Lady Bucs got from that juncture was within 18 when Shawn Randall (Orlando, Fla.) netted her first three-pointer of the year, but the Blue and Gold didn’t have anything left in the tank as the Jaspers outscored ETSU 20-5 in the final seven minutes to capture the lop-sided win.

The Lady Bucs’ 46.2 shooting percentage in the first half quickly came tumbling down after only making eight field goals (32 attempts) in the final 20 minutes to finish at 34.5 percent for the game (20-58). Meanwhile, Manhattan continued to heat up in the second half (51.4 percent) as the Jaspers shot 48.5 for the 40 minutes of play (33-68). In addition to their strong shooting, the Jaspers were 11-of-23 from beyond the arc, compared to the Lady Bucs going 5-for-21.

Once again turnovers proved to be costly for the Blue and Gold as ETSU turned the ball over 22 times, resulting in 34 points for the Jaspers. Manhattan also distributed the ball with ease as the Jaspers finished with 21 assists and forced 14 steals. The only thing the Lady Bucs did right was out-rebound the team from New York by four, 40 to 36. Unfortunately, 16 Lady Buccaneer offensive rebounds turned into 10 second chance points, while 11 Jasper offensive boards accounted for 16 points.

Along with Roeder’s career night, Lindse Loutsenhizer added 17 points, while Schyanne Halfkenny finished with 10 points and nine rebounds in 26 minutes off the bench for Manhattan.

The Lady Bucs have a quick turnaround as ETSU heads to Boone, N.C. for a clash with former SoCon rival Appalachian State on Monday night. Tip is set for 6 p.m. inside the Holmes Convocation Center.

For more information on Lady Buccaneer hoops, visit www.ETSUBucs.com.