DALLAS, PA – The Manhattanville College women's basketball team fell 69-53 to the Misericordia University Cougars Thursday, Feb. 21 in a Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC) Freedom Tournament semifinal from the Anderson Sports-Health Center.

Sophomore Sarah Coutu (Cranston, R.I./Cranston East) led Manhattanville (17-8) with 20 points, despite playing just 27 minutes with foul trouble. Freshman Ali Mikaele (Silver Spring, Md./St. Andrew's Episcopal School) finished with 12 points and three steals, sophomore Spencer Shore (Boca Raton, Fla./West Boca Raton) finished with 11 points and five assists and fellow sophomore Amanda Pemberton (Las Vegas, Nev./Liberty) finished with a team-high nine rebounds – five on the offensive glass – and three steals as well. Paige Wampole led Misericordia (22-4) with a 16-point, 12-rebound double-double – adding four blocks --, while Tessa Zamolyi added 13 points and eight rebounds and Jordan Barth just missed a double-double with nine points and 11 rebounds.

The teams traded the lead five times in the early going, with the Valiants taking a 10-8 lead following three-pointers on consecutive possessions from Coutu. The Cougars took command of the game from there, reeling off 16 straight points between the first and second quarters, opening a 24-10 lead just under three minutes into the second quarter.

The Valiants trimmed the lead to 26-18, but the Cougars answered with eight of the final 11 points of the half, taking a 34-21 lead to the locker room. The Cougars finished the opening 20 minutes with a 26-16 rebounding advantage.

Manhattanville came out hot in the second half, scoring seven straight points, five coming from freshman Ali Mikaele (Silver Spring, Md./St. Andrew's Episcopal School), cutting the deficit to 34-28. But, the Cougars responded with a big run of their own, outscoring the Valiants 20-6 over the rest of the quarter, taking a 54-34 lead to the fourth quarter.

Shore opened the fourth quarter with five straight points as part of an overall 10-0 Manhattanville run, but the Cougars again absorbed the damage and responded, outscoring Manhattanville 15-9 the rest of the way to close out the game.

Manhattanville ends the year with consecutive 17-win seasons for the first time since 2009-2011, graduate just three seniors – Kayleah McGuire (Somers, N.Y./Somers), Geena Catalano (Madison, Conn./Daniel Hand) and Jess Nichols-Larosa (Randolph, Mass./Randolph) – and are in prime position for a Skyline Conference Tournament run when Manhattanville athletics rejoins the conference next season.