GAME NOTES: A couple of teams struggling through rough Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference schedules hit the floor at the Yanitelli Center in Jersey City today, as the Saint Peter's Peacocks host the Manhattan Jaspers. The Peacocks were in action on Friday night and lost their eighth straight and 15th in the last 16 outings with a 60-52 setback to Iona at home. The defeat leaves Saint Peter's in last place in the MAAC with just one victory in 11 opportunities. As for the Jaspers, they've certainly seen better days in recent years, currently sporting a woeful 2-9 MAAC mark. The squad last hit the floor on Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden and lost on the famed floor to the aforementioned Gaels by just a basket, 62-60. For Manhattan, the defeat was the sixth in a row and the ninth in 10 games. Manhattan won the first round of this series back in early December with a narrow 65-62 victory at home. As a result, the Jaspers now lead the all-time series with Saint Peter's by a count of 63-43.

The Jaspers had four players score in double figures on Wednesday night at The Garden, led by Antoine Pearson and his 15 points, but it just wasn't enough to escape the two-point loss to Iona. Devon Austin added 14 points and a team-best seven rebounds, but he shot only 4-of-15 from the field and 1-of-6 behind the three-point line, while Rashad Green and Chris Smith chipped in 13 and 10 points, respectively. Pearson leads the team in scoring after 21 games with his 11.6 ppg and is also first in the passing department as well with 46 assists, but the squad is averaging less than 11 dishes per game at the moment. Austin checks in with 10.6 ppg as a mere 38.4 percent shooting from the field who insists on trying his hand out on the perimeter where he has been just 29.7 percent successful on more than 100 attempts.

Oddly enough, even though Saint Peter's missed all 10 attempts from three-point range in the second half on Friday night, the squad outscored the Gaels in the period and still came up eight points shy overall. Todd Sowell produced a double-double for the home team with 14 points and 12 rebounds, while Wesley Jenkins and Nick Leon each netted 10 points. Leon added four assists and three steals to his stat line, while his teammate in the backcourt converted a woeful 3-of-16 from the floor and turned the ball over four times without a single assist. Even after his horrific shooting effort, Jenkins still leads the team with his 12.6 ppg, but he is now making just 37.1 percent of his field goal tries. Sowell is averaging a double-double with 12.4 ppg and 10.5 rpg and is also first with 52 blocked shots in his 21 starts. Unfortunately for him and the rest of the Peacocks, the team is still getting beaten on the glass on a regular basis.

The Peacocks can't seem to get out of their own way sometimes and while this is not the Manhattan of old, it is still a program that knows how to take out Saint Peter's