PURCHASE, N.Y. – The Manhattanville women's basketball team fell short of an upset victory over the William Paterson as the Pioneers escaped with a 63-60 victory against the Valiants on Monday evening from Kennedy Gym.
 
For the second straight game the Valiants were led by sophomore Bri Pabon (Newington, Conn./Newington), who finished the game with 19 points. Senior Taylor Wilson (Pearl River, N.Y./Pearl River) also had 16 points, and for the 11th time in 12 games sophomore Alyson Caiazzo (Brooklyn, N.Y/St. Saviour) recorded a double-double with 13 points and 11 rebounds.
 
The game started off with Manhattanville in an early 10-0 hole, as six of the game's first 10 points were scored by Jessi Corredor. The Valiants broke the slide as Caiazzo hit a layup from under the cylinder to cut the lead down to eight. The Valiants continued to claw their way back into the game and pulled to within four points as Wilson hit a three-pointer with 8:56 to go.
 
As play continued through the latter stages of the first half William Paterson took its largest lead of the game at 14 points when Floriana Borova hit a pair from the charity stripe, Borova finished the contest with a game-high 21 points for either side. After Manhattanville pulled to within 10, the Pioneers hit another pair from the line and Manhattanville hit one as well to send the game into the locker rooms with William Paterson leading 34-23.
 
In the early going of the second period Manhattanville pulled to within seven on a pair of occasions, but again it was the strength of William Paterson to force the lead back up to 14 for the second time in the game, and minutes later up to 16 as Borova hit a clutch three pointer.
 
Manhattanville returned the favor from the start of the contest and began a 10-0 run of its own, started with a Caiazzo layup, a three-pointer from Pabon, a Wilson layup, then yet another shot from beyond the arc out of the hands of Pabon. After a pair of free throws were sunk by William Paterson, Pabon continued her torrid shooting with yet another three pointer.
 
A layup by Ashley Marfo of the Pioneers gave the road team a seven-point lead back, but again the Valiants battled their way to within three after back-to-back baskets by Pabon. It was then Wilson's turn to put in a run as she sank two from the free throw line to make the score 56-53, then a minute later drilled a three-pointer to tie the game at 56.
 
With 2:40 to go and the game tied at 57, the Valiants took their first lead of the night when Wilson went another 2-of-2 from the line to put Manhattanville up 59-57. William Paterson came back down the floor and hit a layup which sparked a 6-1 run for the Pioneers to finish off the Valiants and earned the well fought victory.
 
As a team Manhattanville did well, shooting 39.6% from the field, to William Paterson's 34.8%. From beyond the arc, the Valiants went 6-of-13 while the Pioneers struggled with a 3-of-18 night from the land of the three. While both teams were fairly successful in terms of shooting the ball, the biggest problem for both teams were turnovers as Manhattanville gave the ball away 35 times, and the Pioneers 28 times for a game total of 63 giveaways.

Manhattanville (7-5, 0-2 Freedom) wrapped up its non-conference schedule and will play nothing but Freedom Conference games for the rest of the season starting off with the best team in the league as the Valiants welcome in the FDU-Florham Devils on Wednesday night at 6:00 p.m. with the pre-game show beginning five minutes prior to the game on GoValiants.TV. William Paterson (10-4, 4-2 NJAC North) opens up the remainder of its conference schedule with a trip to nearby Ramapo to take on the Roadrunners at 5:30 p.m. also on Wednesday.