GAME NOTES: A couple of teams desperate to get on track meet up Sunday afternoon as the Manhattan Jaspers entertain the Marist Red Foxes in a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference showdown at Draddy Gym.

For Manhattan, which is finally getting to play in front of a favorable crowd at home, the team is dealing with a three-game slide at the moment, having lost most recently to Fairfield on Friday night by a score of 67-54. The lone victory in six tries for the program was a 78-63 triumph over Binghamton in Connecticut during the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Tip-Off . late last month.

As for the Red Foxes, they too have had trouble putting together favorable efforts in 2014-15, winning only one of their first seven outings. The campaign began with four consecutive defeats before the squad took out Fresno State (68-64) on Nov. 26. Unfortunately, Marist went right back to the loss column with setbacks to Boston College (79-61) and most recently, Monmouth (57-50).

Manhattan leads the all-time series by a count of 26-15.

The Red Foxes lost for the second time in as many chances in McCann Arena as the team shot just 29.6 percent behind the 3-point line and turned the ball over 21 times in the seven-point setback to Monmouth earlier this week. Phillip Lawrence emerged as the lone double-digit scorer for the squad with his 14 points. Another reason for the Red Foxes falling short against the Hawks was the fact that for the first time this season the team was limited to single-digit opportunities at the free-throw line (4-of-7).

Despite the issues with first getting to the charity stripe in the last outing, the Red Foxes are still showing great poise at the stripe through seven games with 74.8 percent accuracy, far ahead of the 67.4 percent for the competition. Unfortunately for Marist, the top two scoring threats will probably be watching this game from the sidelines as Khallid Hart (24.5 ppg) and Chavaughn Lewis (17.9 ppg) deal with injuries to their foot and left ankle, respectively.

Converting only eight field goals in the first half and missing on all five chances behind the 3-point line was bad enough, but the Jaspers coupled those efforts with a mere 6-of-12 shooting at the free-throw line through the first 20 minutes of action against Fairfield two nights ago. There was slight improvement in the second half for Manhattan, but not enough to keep the team from falling into the loss column yet again.

Ashton Pankey had a strong game with a personal best of 23 points, converting 8-of-14 from the floor, while Emmy Andujar tacked on another 10 points and pulled down nine rebounds, but they were the only two players to have converted more than a single field goal for the visitors. Tyler Wilson, who tallied just two points in 29 minutes, was charged with eight of the unit's 21 turnovers.

In the last three games the Jaspers have had a different leading scorer each time out, which says more about their lack of having an offensive leader than it does being well-balanced. Shane Richards, who has accounted for 17 of the squad's 38 made 3-pointers through six games, leads the group with his 14.5 ppg even though he shot only 1-of-6 from the field and finished with eight points in the loss to the Stags.

Both of these teams need a spark to kick them into gear. It could come for the Jaspers, as they finally get to play in familiar and friendly surroundings.