GAME NOTES: The Manhattan Jaspers are just one step away from making a return appearance in the finals of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Tournament, as they battle the Saint Peter's Peacocks in the semifinals on Sunday night at the Times Union Center.

Third-seeded Manhattan, which has played in the title tilt the last two years, winning it all with a 71-68 triumph over Iona in 2014, has won two straight and five of the last six outings thanks to a 74-58 triumph over Marist in the quarterfinals on Saturday night.

As for the seventh-seeded Peacocks, who won it all as recently as 2011 and is one championship behind Manhattan with three, they upset second-seeded Rider in the quarterfinals on Saturday in a 68-59 final.

During the regular season, the Jaspers won both meetings with Saint Peter's, the first being a 68-63 final at Draddy Gym on Jan. 7, followed nine days later by a 72-65 overtime affair in New Jersey.

The winner of this meeting will challenge either Monmouth or Iona for the championship on Monday night, with the victor there being given a free pass into the NCAA Tournament.

The Peacocks weathered 15 turnovers on Saturday by shooting an impressive 8- of-14 behind the 3-point line and outscoring Rider at the charity stripe by a 30-13 margin thanks to Desi Washington who was a near-perfect 15-of-16 at the line and finished with 22 points for Saint Peter's. Also scoring in double figures for the program was Marvin Dominique who tallied 15 points as he connected on 3-of-4 shots behind the 3-point line.

Although he has appeared in just 24 of his team's 33 outings this season, Washington is still the leading scorer with 14.2 ppg, thanks in large part to his 84.6 percent accuracy at the charity stripe and not so much his 38.1 percent effort from the floor. Dominique checks in with another 13.9 ppg for a program that is putting up only 61.6 ppg, but at least limiting the competition to 60.1 ppg.

Emmy Andujar filled his stat line on Saturday with 24 points, 10 rebounds and five assists as the Jaspers dismissed Marist rather easily. Andujar, who also dealt with five turnovers, went a perfect 8-of-8 at the free-throw line and all but two of his 10 field goal tries. Shane Richards and Ashton Pankey pitched in with 18 and 16 points, respectively, the latter pulling down another nine rebounds as the team used a 41-28 edge on the glass to offset 18 miscues.

Andujar, an All-MAAC First Team selection, not only paces the program in scoring (16.8 ppg) and on the glass (7.6 rpg) at this point in the campaign, he is also tops with 102 assists and 61 steals, making it tough to argue that he is not the top threat in the league in 2014-15. Pankey pitches in with 13.4 ppg and 6.6 rpg, but his numbers could have been so much better if not for the fact that he has played in constant foul trouble and bowed out of six games.

The Peacocks will have a tough time slowing down Andujar, even though the star is working on short rest -- then again everyone is at this point. However, Saint Peter's has already shown that it can compete with the Jaspers so don't be surprised by another upset.