Box Score ST DAVIDS, Pa. – The Manhattanville women's basketball team fell in its Freedom Conference opener on Wednesday evening to the Eastern Eagles by the score of 62-59 in St. Davids, Pa.
 
Despite the loss, sophomore Alyson Caiazzo (Brooklyn, N.Y./St. Saviour) notched her fifth-straight double-double to start the year with 17 points and 10 boards. Senior Taylor Wilson (Pearl River, N.Y./Pearl River) had 16 points and five steals, while sophomore Bri Pabon (Newington, Conn./Newington) also had five steals and 13 points. Senior Jennifer McSharar (Garnerville, N.Y./North Rockland) led the Valiants on the glass as she picked up 16 rebounds including seven offensively.
 
The game opened up with Eastern's Meghan Nowak picking up the game's first basket to put the Eagles up by two. Wilson answered back with Manhattanville's first bucket of the night to even the game at a pair.
 
Manhattanville took its largest lead of the half at the 14:43 mark Pabon stole the ball and laid it in to give the Valiants a 14-10 lead. On the next possession, Eastern came back and drilled a three-pointer as Kaitlyn Dougherty pulled the home team back within one.
 
After an Eastern free throw tied the game, McSharar, Caiazzo and Wilson all gave Manhattanville the lead back as each of their shots were answered by the Eagles. After the game was knotted up again at 22 with 8:47 to go, Caiazzo and Wilson again gave Manhattanville leads that were equally answered by Eastern.
 
After an 11-5 run by Eastern gave the Eagles a 35-32 edge, Pabon answered back with a clutch three-point basket to tie the game with 52 seconds remaining. The Eagles scored the last five points of the opening period including a pair from Nowak with six seconds to go in the half.
 
Pabon hit the first bucket of the second stanza to pull Manhattanville back within three as the Valiants continued to stay with the preseason No. 2 team in the Freedom Conference. After her basket at 19:35 came one of the longest droughts of the season for either team as no basket was scored until 4:01 later when McSharar dropped a layup to pull back within one.
 
Caiazzo gave the Valiants the lead back with a jumper in the paint, but Dougherty hit another key three points to give the lead back to Eastern. After another two-plus minutes of scoreless basketball sophomore Shayna Robinson (Deer Park, N.Y./Deer Park) sent a free throw to the bottom of the basket followed by yet another Caiazzo layup to put Manhattanville up 44-43 with 11:52 to go in regulation.
 
For Eastern it was once again Dougherty to come up with the big basket to give her team back the lead before Wilson and junior Breana Jackson (Los Angeles, Calif./Crossroads School) put up back-to-back layups to put Manhattanville up by three once again. The lead exchanged hands a few more times down the stretch until Gina DiDomenico of Eastern sent up a three-pointer that hit as the Eagles regained a three-point lead.
 
On the next possession it was once again Pabon to answer with the huge three-pointer to tie the game at 57 apiece. With the game tied, it came down to free throws as Nowak went 3-of-4 down the stretch while DiDomenico went 2-for-2, wrapped around a Caiazzo layup as the Eagles escaped with the close 62-59 victory.
 
As a team Manhattanville shot 25-of-68 (36.8%) while Eastern was 20-of-49 from the floor (40.8%). In terms of rebounds, Eastern held a slim 42-40 margin. Both teams struggled from the charity stripe as Manhattanville was 5-for-13 and Eastern was 13-for-21, with the big difference in the game coming from beyond the arc as Eastern was 40.9% compared to Manhattanville's 26.7% from the land of the three.
 
Manhattanville (3-2, 0-1 Freedom) will hit the floor next against yet another strong Freedom Conference foe when Misericordia makes its way to Kennedy Gym for a 1:00 p.m. tip off with coverage of the game available on GoValiants.TV. Eastern (2-3, 1-0 Freedom) will also play next in a conference game against Delaware Valley in Doylestown, Pa. on Saturday.