Boxscore

PURCHASE, N.Y. – Saturday's agenda was to stop Celia Rader and the Freedom Conference-leading Lady Monarchs of King's (Pa.) College, and that's exactly what happened as in front of their largest crowd of the season the Manhattanville women's basketball team defended took a decisive 70-49 victory over the Monarchs inside Kennedy Gym.

Prior to the contest, the team unveiled the program's 1,000-point banner and then proceeded to put on quite a show for the crowd, which included former players and family members.

The Valiants led the entire contest and finished with four players in double figures. Senior guard Simona Gordon (Cambridge, Mass./Cambridge Rindge & Latin) scored a game-high 17 points on 8-of-18 from the field along with seven rebounds, five assists and four steals. Off the bench, junior Kelli Hyjek (Tolland, Conn./Tolland) had 15 points and six rebounds and also took two defensive charges. 

Junior Courtney Turner (Staten Island, N.Y./Ralph McKee) and sophomore Taylor Wilson (Pearl River, N.Y./Pearl River) each finished with 12 points, as Turner nearly reached a double-double with nine rebounds. Senior point guard Carey Hickey (Dobbs Ferry, N.Y./Dobbs Ferry) led with 11 assists as she continued to drive her season total into the top-five of the latest NCAA Div. III national rankings. 

Manhattanville shot just under 50 percent in the contest in all three categories, and were fortunate to not need any help from the charity stripe, shooting 3-of-7. King's, on the other hand, shot at or below 30 percent in all shooting categories. The Valiants defense was stellar in the contest, grabbing 38 rebounds on the defensive end and finishing with a big 51-35 edge on the boards.

The offense was rolling early on, as the team led by 10 points with 13:54 remaining on a layup by Hyjek. The team kept a double-digit lead the entire half, with their highest lead of 17 points, 31-14, on a layup by Gordon with 4:58 left. Gordon led the Valiants with 11 points in the half as her counterpart Rader scored all of her 10 points in the opening frame. The Valiants shot 42 percent from the field in the half and made 3-of-5 from outside the arc, while King's shot 29 percent from the field and were 3-of-12 from the outside. 

The second half was the same story for the Valiants as they continued to pressure the Monarchs and forced the King's head coach to go to his reserves. The Valiants took a 20-point lead, 45-25, with 14:12 remaining on a layup by Turner and then took their largest lead of the game three minutes later on a layup by sophomore Janetta Arnold (Windsor, Conn./Suffield Academy). The Monarchs substitutions tried to mount a comeback late, as reserves Jessica McHugh and Kyley Henry combined for 14 of the 26 points scored by the Monarchs in the second half, but the Manhattanville lead never slipped below 15 and the verdict was never in doubt.

Hyjek ended the day with 11 points in the final period to lead all scorers as her team shot 52 percent from the field and grabbed 27 rebounds. 

Manhattanville (12-7, 5-3 Freedom) will travel to DeSales for a Freedom Conference battle on Wednesday evening at 6 p.m. The contest will have a live audio broadcast on WMVL 88.1 FM beginning at 5:45 p.m. King's (Pa.) (12-7, 6-2 Freedom) will host Eastern at 6 p.m. on Wednesday.