PURCHASE, N.Y. – Senior Taylor Wilson (Pearl River, N.Y./Pearl River) and sophomore Alyson Caiazzo (Brooklyn, N.Y/St. Saviour) each had 22 points, as the Manhattanville women's basketball team erased a 14-point first half deficit to defeat the Eastern Eagles by a 73-56 score from Kennedy Gymnasium on Saturday afternoon.
 
Eastern stormed out of the starting blocks and opened up a quick 10-2 lead just over three minutes into the contest, with Meghan Nowak leading the team with seven points on the run. The Valiants ended the drought with a layup off the glass from Caiazzo but Eastern continued to run on all cylinders offensively and lead by 14 after Gina DiDomenico drilled a three-pointer with 8:08 to go in the opening half.
 
Manhattanville began to crawl its way back into the game with five minutes as Wilson went 20-for-2 at the line followed by a Caiazzo jumper to trim the lead back down to seven. Freshman Ashley Raaf (Rockaway Beach, N.Y./Christ The King) hit a layup and was fouled then converted on the three-point play as she finished the game with 12 points. Caiazzo then repeated Raaf's three point performance with a layup and a free throw, and pulled the Valiants all the way back to within one with 2:14 to go in the half.
 
Eastern was able to get one more layup down the stretch of the period and took its 29-26 lead into the locker room. For the first half, Manhattanville went 10-of-27 from the floor, while Eastern went 12-of-29 in the closely contested battle.
 
As the second half started, Nowak and Kaitlyn Dougherty started the period off with a 4-0 run to gain some breathing room on the scoreboard but again the Valiants refused to fall behind as they did early in the first half. Caiazzo hit a layup and Raaf sank a jumper to answer right back, but Eastern continued to hold a 3-5 point lead over the next few minutes.
 
Sophomore Bri Pabon (Newington, Conn./Newington) got in on the scoring action with a three-point basket with 15:18 left in regulation, and with it tied the game for the first time since it was 0-0. Caiazzo gave the Valiants their first lead of the game the next time down the floor to and put up a layup that dropped to put her squad up 37-35. From that point on, Manhattanville began to add to its lead piece by piece on the ensuing possessions.
 
Caiazzo put another layup up, followed by a three-point basket from Eastern's Kelsie Patton, but then Wilson took over and drained a pair of three-point baskets in a 26-second span to increase Manhattanville's lead to nine. The Valiants worked their way all the way up to a 10-point edge when it was once again Caiazzo in the paint with 7:31 left in regulation.
 
Down the stretch of the game, Wilson, Pabon and Raaf went a combined 13-of-15 to put the game out of reach as Manhattanville completed the comeback victory and avenged its loss from earlier in the season against the Eagles in early November.
 
At the end of the game the Valiants had their third best shooting game of the season, going 45.3% from the field. Manhattanville also had its second best shooting night from the free-throw line this season as they converted 20-of-27 from the charity stripe.
Manhattanville (9-9, 2-6 Freedom) will play on the road for its next contest as they take on unbeaten in league-play FDU-Florham on Wednesday evening at 6:00 p.m. Eastern (8-11, 4-4 Freedom) heads back on the road this Wednesday, when it takes on the King's Lady Monarchs, also at 6:00 p.m.