PURCHASE, N.Y. – The Manhattanville women's basketball team opened up their home slate on Monday evening to the tune of a 71-67 victory over the Eastern Connecticut State Warriors at Kennedy Gym.
Manhattanville opened up the game on an attempted three-pointer by junior guard Taylor Wilson (Pearl River, N.Y./Pearl River), who missed but was fouled in the process and opened the scoring by nailing all three from the free-throw line. The two sides exchanged baskets throughout the next several minutes until the game was tied at 10 with 13:57 remaining, followed by a quick Wilson miss and a Warrior basket to give them their first lead of the game at 12-10.
Eastern Connecticut State built up a lead throughout the latter stages of the first half, getting a lead as large as 11 with 3:57 to go in the first half. Manhattanville trimmed the lead back down to three after a layup by junior Courtney Turner (Staten Island, N.Y./Ralph McKee) but the Warriors hit a three-pointer with 12 seconds remaining to take a 33-27 lead into the halftime break.
The Valiants were very lucky to be within six at the break, as ECSU shot 50.0 percent from the floor (13 for 26) while Manhattanville connected on just 9 of 32 attempts (28.1 percent), including 0 for 7 on three-point attempts.
But Manhattanville came on very strong in the second half, beginning just 12 seconds in when junior guard Sarah Gibbs(Ocean City, N.J./Ocean City) hit a three after getting into early foul trouble in the first half, playing only two minutes. Eastern Connecticut answered with a three-pointer of their own, which was followed up the first of what proved to be three straight three-pointers by Wilson, with the third trimming the lead to one.
Wilson then hit a layup to give the Valiants their first lead of the second stanza at 41-40 with 15:54 remaining. The teams then exchanged shots back-and-forth, and Wilson eventually hit her fourth three-pointer of the half to give Manhattanville a two-point edge.
Eastern Connecticut took the lead back with their own three-pointer, which was followed by a basket by junior Jen McSharar to give the Valiants the lead for good at 46-45. Manhattanville got their lead all the way up to 13 points with the help of a 16-4 run, with the high-water mark coming after senior Kelli Hyjek (Tolland, Conn./Tolland) hit a free-throw with 7:32 remaining for the 62-49 lead.
Eastern Connecticut however refused to quit and cut back the Valiant lead all the way down to two with a pair of free throws to make the score 62-60 with just over two minutes remaining. After Gibbs missed a three-pointer, freshman Sarah Vann(Mobile, Ala./John F. Kennedy (Bronx, N.Y.)) collected the rebound and hit a layup and the ensuing free throw after being fouled in the process. After a missed layup by Eastern Connecticut, Vann hit a clutch jumper in the lane with 65 seconds to go to give the Valiants their seven-point lead back.
After the Warriors got the lead back down to three, Vann hit another pair of clutch free-throws with 17 seconds remaining to ice the game at 70-65. Eastern Connecticut hit a quick layup and fouled Hyjek after the inbounds sending the senior captain to the line, and Hyjek hit the second of two attempts to finish off the scoring and give Manhattanville the 71-67 victory.
"It was a heck of a win," said head coach Lauren Thomer after the win. "To have a freshman like [Sarah] Vann come up huge for us late in the game was big, and really exciting for the future of this program. Before this season a lot of people counted us out and we need to earn that respect after being picked to finish fifth in the preseason poll."
Leading the way for Manhattanville was Wilson with 21 points, including her four three-pointers in the second half, as well as six rebounds and a pair of steals before fouling out late in the second half. Hyjek also reached double figures with 13 points, with five coming from the charity stripe, while Turner added 12 points and Vann added 11 points from the bench.
Leading the way on the glass was McSharar with eight rebounds and sophomore Beranda Felder (Brooklyn, N.Y./Midwood), who had seven boards while leading the team with four of their 16 offensive rebounds. Felder also contributed with three steals and a pair of assists as a reserve.
Manhattanville (2-2) will have a quick turn round and be back at Kennedy Gym this Wednesday when they open up Freedom Conference play against Eastern Eagles, with tip-off set at 6:00 p.m. Game coverage of the contest will be available 10 minutes prior to the contest on GoValiants.TV. Eastern Connecticut returns to the floor when they open up Little East Conference play with a game against Southern Maine on Saturday, December 3 at 1:00 p.m.
"Wednesday is going be a tough game," said Thomer, "but tonight showed us we can compete with the better teams in our conference."