NEWBURGH, N.Y. – The Manhattanville College women's basketball team went on the road today, Nov. 23 for the first time this season and fell to Skyline Conference foe Mount Saint Mary College. The Valiants were defeated 65-49 but had a close and exciting first and fourth quarter.
 
Manhattanville (2-1, 1-1) took an early four-point lead after junior Sarah Coutu (Cranston, R.I./Cranston East) made a layup and a jump shot. When the score was tied at seven a piece, for about two minutes the game when scoreless and each team traded off steals and missed opportunities. Sophomore Faith Johnson-Desilvia (Riverhead, N.Y./Riverhead) ended the dry spell after she sank a jump shot. The Knights (3-1, 3-0) quickly responded with a jumper to tie the score up once again. The last point of the quarter was made by Johnson-Desilvia on a free throw opportunity.
 
Junior Amanda Pemberton (Las Vegas, Nev./Liberty) started the second quarter off with a steal and ended the game with two.  Johnson-Desilvia and sophomore Ali Mikaele (Silver Spring, Md./St. Andrew's Episcopal School) each made a jumper around the nine-minute mark and those were the last points scored by the Valiants for four minutes. Coutu made the layup that ended Manhattanville's dry spell. Mikaele made the last bucket of the half for the Valiants pushing their score to 21.
 
The Valiants trailed 32-21 in the beginning of the third but Pemberton made a jumper to push the score up by two. After her shot, Coutu made her second steal of the game and got the ball back in the Valiants favor. Freshman Madison Fields (Grantsville, Utah/Grantsville), freshman Cierra Simmons (Poughkeepsie, N.Y./Poughkeepsie), Johnson-Desilvia and Pemberton each grabbed two rebounds throughout the third.
 
Manhattanville started the fourth with another steal but this time it was made by Mikaele. She was then fouled seconds later and sank two free throws. Johnson-Desilvia totaled seven points in the third one of them being a three. Sophomore Claudia Valentin (Cambridge, Mass./Cambridge Rindge & Latin School) scored the last jumper for Manhattanville ending the score at 65-49.  
 
Mikaele lead the Valiants in points with 13 and Johnson-Desilvia followed with 11. She also led the team in steals and rebounds notching three and six respectively.
 
The squad will remain on the road as they next face John Jay College on Nov. 26 at 5:30 p.m. in New York.