MADISON, NJ – A cold shooting night was too much for the Manhattanville College women's basketball team to overcome as the Valiants fell 56-49 to the top team in the MAC Freedom, FDU-Florham, Tuesday night.

Sophomore Kymane Jones (Washingtonville, N.Y./Washingtonville ) scored a team-high 12 points for Manhattanville (18-6, 8-5 MACF) while senior Joiada Darnell (St. Albans, N.Y./Humanities and the Arts) added 10 with eight rebounds and freshman Sarah Coutu (Cranston, R.I./Cranston East) added 10 with a team-high four assists. Sophomore Nancy Caballero (Henderson, Nev./Liberty) added seven and grabbed a game-high 14 rebounds for the Valiants, who shot less than 36% from the field for just the fourth time in their last 19 games.

Kendrea Williams led all scorers with 14 points for FDU-Florham (18-6, 10-2 MACF), while Bria Smith posted 13 points and 11 rebounds for the game's lone double-double and Taiah Thornton added 11 for the Devils.

Manhattanville took a 7-5 lead in the first three minutes, before FDU-Florham scored nine straight points, forcing a Manhattanville timeout. The Valiants came out of the timeout with four straight points to trim the deficit to three points. The Devils ended the quarter with a 19-13 lead after scoring five of the frame's final seven points.

Smith scored five straight points to open the second quarter as the Devils opened a double-digit lead, but the Valiants closed the deficit to six, 26-20, at the midway point of the quarter. The teams traded baskets over the next four minutes with the Devils pushing the lead up to eight before Raven Dowling hit a three-pointer just before the half to regain the double-digit lead at 34-23.

The teams missed the first nine shots combined to open the third quarter before a Jones lay-up at 7:16 kick-started a 12-5 run for the Valiants, who closed the deficit to four, 39-35, with 3:20 on the clock. However Smith again scored five straight for the Devils, who responded with an 8-0 run to end the quarter with a 47-35 lead.

Manhattanville again closed the deficit to six, 51-45, on a Jones lay-up with just under six minutes to go, but the Valiants could not draw closer than that down the stretch.

Both Manhattanville and Misericordia University, following the Cougars' loss to DeSales earlier Tuesday night, will enter Saturday's regular season finale at Misericordia with 8-5 records in MAC Freedom play. The winner of Saturday's game between the Valiants and Cougars, scheduled to tip at 1:00 p.m., will earn the fourth and final spot in the MAC Freedom Tournament and would play at FDU-Florham or King's (Pa.) College next Wednesday in the semifinals.