ARLINGTON, Va. – As part of the 2011 Marymount Tip-Off Classic the Manhattanville Valiants women's basketball team earned their first victory of the season over the Gettysburg Bullets by a score of 61-54 in Arlington, Virginia on Friday afternoon.
The game started out with a bang as junior Taylor Wilson (Pearl River, N.Y./Pearl River) opened with a long three-pointer just 20 seconds into the contest. Gettysburg then took an 8-6 lead with 16:17 remaining in the half, after that both sides went ice cold as there was a 2:08 scoring drought for both sides. The stretch of bad shooting finally came to an end when junior Jen McSharar tipped the ball into the hoop to tie the score at eight.
Throughout the next few minutes the sides teeter-tottered back and forth until the Valiants hit a three-pointer by Wilson once again. Senior Kelli Hyjek (Tolland, Conn./Tolland) hit a jumper and was followed up by six more points from Wilson. Hyjek then responded to her teammates baskets with one more of her own. Not to be outshined, sophomore Melody O'Connor (Kingston, N.Y./Coleman Catholic) then hit a three-pointer as Manhattanville went on a 16-0 run.
After Gettysburg finally broke the Valiants' run both sides went on yet another scoreless slump of 2:39. With a good free-throw from junior Sarah Gibbs (Ocean City, N.J./Ocean City) with 1:05 to go in the half, Manhattanville had their largest lead of the half at 17.
After the break the lead for the Valiants barely budged as the teams went basket for basket with one another. Manhattanville had their largest lead of the game at 19 on a pair of occasions 31 seconds apart. The first occasion came when O'Connor sank a jumper, the second was on a Hyjek free throw.
After the made free throw the Bullets surged offensively by going on an 11-point run which resulted in the once comfortable lead to be trimmed to single digits. With 52 seconds to go the lead was trimmed to three points, then the Bullets began fouling the Valiants attempting to get back to take the lead of their own.
During the final 27 seconds senior Courtney Turner (Staten Island, N.Y./Ralph McKee) went 4-for-6 at the line and kept the game out of reach and the Valiant had their first win of the year.
Two players reached double-figures for the Valiants as Wilson had 17 including three three-pointers while Turner had 16 total including 12 from the charity stripe. The team as a whole shot 18-for-62 but still managed to pull out the seven point win.
Leading the way on the boards was McSharar who had seven, while Gibbs snagged six rebounds and also collected six steals in the process.
Manhattanville (1-1) will be back in action tomorrow in the Championship game of the Marymount Tip-Off Classic when they take on host Marymount at 6:00 p.m. after defeating Lynchburg later in the day. Gettysburg (0-1) will play in the consolation game of the tournament when they play Lynchburg at 2:00 p.m.