With just 1:48 left in the MAAC Tournament semifinal matchup between Manhattan and Quinnipiac, Jaspers junior forward Brazil Harvey-Carr sank a free throw and then smiled so wide that her teeth were showing with the same whiteness as the No. 3 on the front of her jersey. 

Harvey-Carr knew that Manhattan was just a couple minutes away from its first MAAC championship game appearance in 19 years. 

She then made the second free throw, and her smile somehow got even wider. The team’s lead grew to 11, and Manhattan finished off the game winning 72-59 on Friday afternoon.

The Jaspers got off to a fast start against the Bobcats. They made eight of their first 12 shots, led by junior Dee Dee Davis who had 10 points in the first quarter. 

The Jaspers, including Davis, did a great job limiting Mackenzie DeWees and Mikala Morris early on, as the two leading scorers for the Bobcats went a combined 1-for-4 from the field with four points. Manhattan has four players in its starting lineup over 6 feet tall, and those players all helped in guarding the 6-foot-2-inch Morris. 

“We’re able to crowd (Morris) and surround her with a lot of length, and so it’s just like she can’t breathe,” Manhattan head coach Heather Vulin said. “Fortunately for us, we were able to do a really good job executing that today.”

With Morris being limited in the first half, due to great defense and also foul trouble, the Bobcats had sophomore Tiera White and junior Cur’Tiera Haywood step up. What was once a 27-12 deficit was cut to a 35-27 halftime deficit, much to the credit of these two players.

White played a similar role to the team that she did on Wednesday in the Bobcats’ quarterfinal win against Saint Peter’s. She scored three baskets when Morris was on the bench, all coming in the second quarter. Haywood had an 11-point first half, shooting 4-for-6 from the field and knocking down a three. 

The large deficit was too much to overcome though, as the Bobcats came within four points a few times in the fourth quarter but Manhattan held on for the double-digit win.

“We had ample opportunities,” Quinnipiac head coach Tricia Fabbri said. “We kept them at bay and kept putting ourselves in a position to get that game tied and take a lead, and we just couldn’t do it.”

They couldn’t do it because Harvey-Carr took over the game late in the fourth quarter. She prevented Quinnipiac from coming back, with an aggressive drive to the basket after a Morris miss to make it an eight-point game with three minutes left. She scored 22 points in the game, 10 coming in the fourth quarter and two of them came at the free-throw line when she smiled at her teammates about the eventual win.

“I knew the next step is the championship game,” Harvey-Carr said. “I knew I was gonna knock that (second) shot down and tomorrow’s a bigger game, so it was (heavy) emotions.”

The Jaspers celebrated as soon as the final buzzer sounded, along with their loud pep band and cheerleaders who were cheering on the team the whole game. While the Quinnipiac pep band and cheerleaders were absent, Manhattan’s cheering section was a difference-maker on Friday.

“It was hard in the first half,” Fabbri said. “You see that every game and your point guard’s back is towards you. It was loud down the other end and it was hard to get everybody on the same page (for) a few possessions.”

The noise caused some early miscommunication and turnovers for the Bobcats, and impacted some important possessions for them early in the game. 

This marked the end of the MAAC Tournament for the Bobcats, but their season isn’t over yet. If No. 1 Fairfield beats Manhattan in Saturday’s championship game, Quinnipiac will play in the WNIT, which means the season will continue for the team. 

“You can’t really worry about last year, and for us, we still have the opportunity – hopefully Fairfield does win,” DeWees said.

DeWees is hopeful for that outcome, as she wants to play more basketball in a season that could be her last. 

Whether they play in the WNIT or not, their goal of winning the MAAC championship has come to an end. The elimination from the tournament breaks a streak of 18 straight years with a championship game including either Quinnipiac or Marist. The last time the game didn’t feature either of those schools? 2003, when Manhattan last made the championship game and won it, beating Siena.

The Jaspers look for the same result, and also look to end Quinnipiac’s hopes of a WNIT bid. They face off against the Stags in Atlantic City on Saturday at 11 a.m. in the MAAC Championship.