WEST POINT, N.Y. – The Manhattanville Valiants women's basketball team fell to the Division I Army Black Knights by the score of 71-40 on Friday night at Christl Arena. With the loss the Valiants' record falls to 2-2 in the early going of the season heading into Monday night's home opener.

In the first half Army jumped out to the quick 2-0 lead on a basket by Jenn Hazlett. After falling behind 4-0 the Valiants took the lead with five unanswered, the fifth point coming on a free throw by senior Kelli Hyjek (Tolland, Conn./Tolland) with 16:49 remaining. Army began to increase their lead until junior Sarah Gibbs (Ocean City, N.J./Ocean City) also hit a three-pointer with 14:03 to go to cut the lead to 13-8.

From there Army began to flex their muscles, outscoring the Valiants by a 34 to 18 margin. Leading the way for Manhattanville in the first half was Hyjek with seven points, while junior Taylor Wilson (Pearl River, N.Y./Pearl River) was second on the team with five points.

Army took a 38-23 lead into the break after ending the period on a 4-0 run.

After the break Army hit a layup 51 seconds into the stanza to open the scoring but the Valiants answered with a pair of free throws from Wilson. The two sides began to run the court as Gibbs hit a jumper that was countered by a Black Knight layup; then on a quick outlet from Gibbs, Wilson hit another quick layup and the lead was 44-29 in favor of the home team.

After the layup, Army went on a 6-0 run that ballooned the lead up to 50-29 with 14:24 remaining. Gibbs broke the run with a pair of free throws and a good defensive play by freshmen Dominique Wilson (Coram, N.Y./Centereach) and Sarah Vann (Mobile, Ala./John F. Kennedy (Bronx, N.Y.)) to force the Black Knights to burn a timeout with the full-court press.

After the timeout the Valiants caused a turnover off the press but were unable to put points on the board. The Black Knights then hit back-to-back three's to take a 58-31 lead before freshman Alyson Caiazzo (Brooklyn, N.Y./St. Saviour) hit a free throw to break the streak momentarily until the Black Knights answered with yet another three-pointer.

With 2:39 on the clock the drought finally came to an end as Turner hit a pair at the line to trim the lead to 69-36. After a pair of quick free throws from Army the Valiants ended the game with four straight points, with freshman Nicole Robinson (Greenburgh, N.Y./The Ursuline School) hitting a pair from the charity stripe and classmate Shayna Robinson (Deer Park, N.Y./Deer Park) hitting a jumper to cut the lead to the final score of 71-40.

Leading the way for Manhattanville was Wilson with nine points, while Hyjek and Gibbs added seven each. From the field Manhattanville shot 20.4% while Army went a solid 47.4% from the floor, including 8-for-16 from behind the arc. Leading the way for the Black Knights was Hazlett, who had 14 points including two three-pointers.

Manhattanville (2-2) will return to action on Monday afternoon for their long-awaited home opener when they take on Eastern Connecticut State at 7:00 p.m., with coverage of the game available on GoValiants.TV. Army (5-1) will be back in action on Sunday when they travel to New York City to take on the Columbia Lions.