PURCHASE, N.Y. – In one of its most competitive games of the season, the Manhattanville College women's basketball team pulled away from the Eastern University Eagles down the stretch for a 73-65 win in Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC) Freedom play.

Manhattanville (13-3, 4-2 MACF) had four players in double figures, led by sophomore Sarah Coutu (Cranston, R.I./Cranston East) and Kayleah McGuire (Somers, N.Y./Somers) who poured in 16 points apiece. Coutu added a career-best 10 assists for a double-double, as well as seven rebounds and four steals; McGuire grabbed a team-high eight rebounds. Freshman Ali Mikaele (Silver Spring, Md./St. Andrew's Episcopal School) added 15 points with seven rebounds and sophomore Jykayla Elting (Poughkeepsie, N.Y./Roy C. Ketcham) added 11 points with six rebounds and a team-high two blocks.

Defensively, the Valiants held MAC Freedom leading scorer Regie Robinson to just six points, well below her 18+ points per game average, but Naomi Harris tripled her season average of seven points per game with a game-high 21 for Eastern (5-12, 0-6 MACF). Minika Glenn added 17 points and seven rebounds for the Eagles.

The game was tight throughout the first half, with the game tied on six separate occasions with no team holding a lead larger than four points until the 3:52 mark of the second quarter when Coutu converted a four-point play for a 29-24 Manhattanville lead. Eastern rallied to tie the game at 35 at halftime. Coutu posted 12 points and seven assists in the opening 20 minutes.

With the Valiants on top 43-38 with just under five minutes left in the third quarter, Eastern's 6-0 run was answered by an 8-0 Manhatanville run. Eastern added the final bucket of the quarter as Manhattanville carried a 51-46 lead to the fourth.

Eastern rallied early in the final quarter, taking a 54-52 lead less than two minutes in, but Manhattanville's defense stepped up from there, holding the Eagles to just two field goals while forcing three turnovers over the next 6+ minutes, turning that two-point deficit into a 64-61 lead with less than three minutes to play.

Sophomore Spencer Shore (Boca Raton, Fla./West Boca Raton) made only one shot on the day, but it was a big one as her right corner three-pointer gave the Valiants their largest lead of the game with 2:02 left in regulation. Shore's three-ball kickstarted a game-ending 9-4 Manhattanville run, as the Eagles made just one shot on five attempts in the final 90 seconds.

With the game pushed back two days by Winter Storm Harper, Manhattanville will have a quick turnaround, with the team returning to action on the road Wednesday night, Jan. 23, against the Fairleigh Dickinson University (FDU)-Florham Devils at 8 p.m.