Box Score WILKES-BARRE, Pa. – For the second straight Saturday the Manhattanville women's basketball team took the road to Wilkes-Barre, Pa., this time around to take on the King's Lady Monarchs as the Valiants fell by a score of 56-74 from McGrane Gymnasium.
 
Senior Taylor Wilson (Pearl River, N.Y./Pearl River) finished the game with a team-high 20 points, while sophomore Alyson Caiazzo (Brooklyn, N.Y./St. Saviour) had 20 rebounds and also finished the game with 10 points as she recorded her 14th double-double in 16 tries this season.
 
The contest started with the Monarchs hitting their shots, followed by Manhattanville returning the favor as the game was tied on three occasions through the first 4:26 of regulation. King's began to pull away as they opened up a 4-point edge, but Wilson sank a three-pointer to trim the lead back down to one at 14-13.
 
Through the latter stages of the opening half the Monarchs continued to add to its lead little-by-little and opened up a seven-point advantage with 9:50 to go as Molly Dahl hit a layup. It was Dahl again to put the Monarchs up by nine several minutes later to make the score 29-20, but again it was Wilson pull the Valiants closer as she drilled another three-pointer on the contest.
 
King's opened up an 11-point lead, but the Valiants refused to quit as they went on a brief 5-0 run with three free throws from Caiazzo and a layup from junior Shauna Mulkerin (Branchburg, N.J./Immaculata). However, the Monarch's increased the lead back to 11 as Katlin Michaels sank a three-pointer and Lindsay Atchinson put up a layup to cap off the scoring in the first half, and send her squad into the locker room up 43-32.
 
In the second half, King's took its largest lead of the game at that point by 13 as Cassie Erdmann put up a jumper with 4:15 gone by in the half. But yet again Manhattanville refused to turnover against the Monarchs and rallied for a 7-0 spurt that saw freshmen Ashley Franklin (New Haven, Conn./Hill Regional Career) and Ashley Raaf (Rockaway Beach, N.Y./Christ The King) get in on the scoring along with Mulkerin and Wilson.
 
With its lead down to six, King's hit its next basket then called timeout to refocus the team and with that started a 9-0 run as the Monarchs began to put the game away up by 17 with 6:19 to go in the contest. The Monarchs ballooned the lead all the way to 23 on two separate occasions through the remainder of the contest, but Franklin hit a three-pointer and junior Breana Jackson (Los Angeles, Calif./Crossroads School) hit a layup with 1:01 left in the game to cap off the scoring for either side.
 
Both teams struggled from the floor as they shot fewer than 37%; Manhattanville finished the game with six three-point baskets to King's 5-of-28 from beyond the arc. Rebounds were fairly close as the Valiants grabbed 42 boards to the Monarch's 47, with the biggest difference in the game coming in the turnover category as Manhattanville gave the ball away 29 times.
 
Manhattanville (8-8, 1-5 Freedom) resumes Freedom Conference play with a pair of home contests next week starting with the DeSales Bulldogs coming to Kennedy Gymnasium on Wednesday evening at 6:00 p.m. with coverage of the game available on GoValiants.TV. King's (12-4, 5-1 Freedom) looks to keep its winning ways going as the Monarchs take on Keystone College at home on Monday evening.