BOSTON, Mass. – The Manhattanville women's basketball team opened up its 2012-13 campaign with a solid 67-56 victory over the Colby-Sawyer Chargers on Saturday afternoon as part of the UMass Boston Tip-Off Tournament being played at Simmons College in Boston, Mass. The win proved to be the first win for first-year head coach Kate Vlahakis, who took over the program back in early September.
 
The Valiants got a pair of double-doubles out of senior Jennifer McSharar (Garnerville, N.Y./North Rockland) and sophomore Alyson Caiazzo (Brooklyn, N.Y/St. Saviour), while senior Taylor Wilson (Pearl River, N.Y./Pearl River) tied McSharar for the team-lead in points with 17 on the afternoon.
 
The contest started off with Colby-Sawyer sinking the first basket on the afternoon, and was answered by Manhattanville's first point of the season coming on a McSharar free throw. The Chargers continued to roll as they opened up a seven-point lead and went up 8-1 with 3:09 gone by in the early stages of the contest. Manhattanville stopped the run as Wilson hit her first field goal of the season at 5:13 of the game.
 
Wilson helped continue to close the gap with two more baskets as she brought the Chargers' lead back down to one. Manhattanville got as close as one point two more times in the ensuing minutes, and finally took their first lead of the season with 7:24 remaining in the half as McSharar laid home a basket. The lead went back and forth through the next series of plays including sophomore Bri Pabon (Newington, Conn./Newington) hitting a jumper with under five minutes to go in the half.
 
As the period came to a close, Manhattanville continued to find their stride and went on a 16-0 run to finish off the half and open up a 39-24 lead. During that stretch the Valiants were led by Wilson, who had six points of the 16 for Manhattanville.
 
The team continued to gel after the halftime break as they scored the second half's first four points on baskets by Pabon and McSharar. The run was finally stopped on a pair of free throws by Colby-Sawyer's Cailin Bullett, which started a 15-0 run in favor of the Chargers that brought the game to the 13:34 mark remaining in regulation.
 
McSharar came up with another big basket to stop the Colby-Sawyer run. After two minutes of missed shots by both teams, sophomore Shayna Robinson (Deer Park, N.Y./Deer Park) broke the drought with a free throw with 11:13 to go in the half. The Valiants had their lead cut down to two on two separate occasions with the last being after a three-point basket Bullett.
 
The Valiants finished the game strong however as Caiazzo had back-to-back layups, followed by a jumper from Wilson to bring the lead back to a bit more comfortable level at eight points with 2:37 remaining in the contest. After a Charger basket, Manhattanville finished the game on 7-2 run and came away with the 67-56 victory.
 
As a team Manhattanville shot 39.7% from the floor helped by McSharar, who was the only senior to shoot better than 50% from the field at 6-of-11 shooting. Freshman Sharanda Barboza (Orange, N.J./Marylawn of the Oranges Academy) was also 2-for-3 from the floor as she netted her first two career baskets. Colby-Sawyer finished the game shooting 27.3% from the field, as they were led by Kelsey Cahill with 15 points on the afternoon.
 
In terms of rebounding the Valiants were led by Caiazzo, who finished the game with an astounding 19 boards, two shy of cracking the Manhattanville top-10 for rebounds in a single game. McSharar had 11 boards for her fourth career double-double and first on the year.
 
Manhattanville (1-0) will be back on the floor tomorrow afternoon at 1:00 p.m. when they play in the championship game of the UMass Boston Tip-Off against the host Beacons. Colby-Sawyer (0-1) will play in the consolation game two hours earlier as they take on Middlebury, who lost in the first game earlier in the day to the Beacons in overtime.