PURCHASE, N.Y. – The Manhattanville women's basketball team opened up their 2011-12 conference schedule with a loss to the Eastern Eagles on Wednesday evening by the score of 75-52. The loss is their first Freedom Opener loss since their first year in the conference four seasons ago.

The Valiants were sluggish out of the gate and fell behind early by a 9-1 margin. Manhattanville cut the lead down to six after a three-pointer by junior Taylor Wilson (Pearl River, N.Y./Pearl River), which was followed up by a layup from senior Kelli Hyjek (Tolland, Conn./Tolland) to make it 12-6 in favor of Eastern.

Manhattanville continued to keep the game close when they pulled within four as Wilson hit another three-pointer with 11:44 to go in the half. From there the Eagles had an offensive outburst with a 14-0 run that saw them get the lead all the way up to 20 which they took to the halftime break.

After halftime the Eagles took a 21 point lead after hitting a free throw which was quickly answered by a three-pointer from freshman Kelly Ann Sullivan (Amity Harbor, N.Y./Copiague). The sides went shot-for-shot through the first nine minutes of the half until the 11:02 mark when Eastern took a lead of 23 points at 54-31.

The Valiants chipped into the lead with back-to-back layups from senior Courtney Turner (Staten Island, N.Y./Ralph McKee)and freshman Dominique Wilson (Coram, N.Y./Centereach) to get the score down to 16 which turned out to be as close as the Valiants could get. With 36 seconds remaining the Eagles reached their largest lead of the game at 24 after hitting a pair of free throws, freshman Alyson Caiazzo (Brooklyn, N.Y/St. Saviour) hit a free-throw with 14 seconds to go which finished off the scoring at 75-52.

Leading the way for Manhattanville was T. Wilson who had 16 points including a pair of three-pointers. Hyjek led the squad in rebounds with nine, as well as assists with six, and also a pair of steals. Manhattanville from the field shot 31.9% while their opponents shot 41.9%.

Manhattanville (3-3, 0-1 Freedom) will be back in action on Saturday when they travel to Dallas, Pa. to take on the Misericordia Cougars at 1:00 p.m. Eastern (4-1, 1-0 Freedom) will also be back in action on Saturday as they continue Freedom Conference play when they welcome Delaware Valley to St. Davids, Pa. for a 1:00 p.m. tip.