Box Score WILKES-BARRE, Pa. – Senior
Stephanie Vaiano (South Ozone Park, N.Y./Archbishop Molloy) scored 13 points and junior
Taylor Wilson (Pearl River, N.Y./Pearl River) added 12 of her own but the Manhattanville women's basketball team fell on the road to the Wilkes Colonels on Saturday afternoon by the score of 89-74.
Vaiano had a solid day all around shooting 5-of-7 from the field while collecting four assists to lead the team in those respective categories. Manhattanville also got eight points each from senior guard Courtney Turner (Staten Island, N.Y./Ralph McKee), junior forward Jennifer McSharar (Garnerville, N.Y./North Rockland), and sophomore Beranda Felder (Brooklyn, N.Y./Midwood).
The Valiants got the first basket of the game on a fast break layup right off the tip as Vaiano gave the Valiants the early 2-0 lead. Wilkes came right back and answered with a three-pointer to take the lead but Manhattanville got the lead right back as part of a 6-0 run to take a 8-3 lead with 15:59 to go in the period.
Manhattanville worked their lead all the way up to nine points at 13:56 when Wilson hit a three-pointer to give the Valiants a 16-7 edge. The pesky Colonels refused to go away as they took advantage of Manhattanville's cold shooting and went on a 13-4 run to regain a two point lead.
The Colonels continued to pile onto their lead with another 16-3 run as their lead exploded to 40-28 with 1:39 to go. The two sides exchanged a more shots over the remainder of the half as the Colonels took a 44-33 lead into the locker room.
At the conclusion of intermission, the Colonels and Valiants continued to make shots though the first 10 minutes of the half, but every time the Valiants got the deficit to single-digits the Colonels answered right back. Manhattanville got as close as seven points on three occasions on baskets by McSharar, Vaiano and Felder.
After falling behind by 16 the Valiants attempted to claw back into the game as senior forward Kelli Hyjek (Tolland, Conn./Tolland) went on a 5-0 run of her own to get the lead back down to 11. Wilkes answered again with a 12-0 run once again that was stopped by Felder who hit back-to-back layups to get the lead below 20 once again.
Wilkes hit another jumper to stop Felder's run, and the Valiants returned and went on a run of their own in the final minute as freshman Nicole Robinson (Greenburgh, N.Y./The Ursuline School) hit a three pointer and Felder hit another layup, but it was too little, too late for Manhattanville as they fell to the Colonels by the score of 89-74.
Manhattanville (6-14, 1-9 Freedom) will look to regroup this Wednesday when they host DeSales at Kennedy Gym beginning at 6:00 p.m. with the coverage available on GoValiants.TV. Wilkes (6-15, 1-9 Freedom) will also be back in action on Wednesday at 6:00 p.m. when they take on FDU-Florham in Madison, N.J.
