PURCHASE, N.Y. – The Manhattanville College women's basketball regular season came to a close yesterday Feb. 27, as they fell to the United States Merchant Marine Academy in the Skyline Conference semifinal matchup. The Valiants trailed the Mariners until middle of the third quarter but lost their lead in the final minutes of the fourth.
 
Junior captains Sarah Coutu (Cranston, R.I./Cranston East), Spencer Shore (Boca Raton, Fla./West Boca Raton) and Amanda Pemberton (Las Vegas, Nev./Liberty) each notched double digit points in tonight's win. Coutu led the team in points notching 17 as Shore and Pemberton totaled 15 and 11 respectively. Coutu was the only Valiant (22-4,17-3 Skyline) to score in the first quarter and notched all eight points, one of them was a three-pointer.
 
Manhattanville cut its deficit to three points by the end of the second quarter. It was with the help of Coutu scoring five points and then sophomore Faith Johnson-Desilvia (Riverhead, N.Y./Riverhead) making a steal and taking the ball to the basket for a layup.
 
Johnson-Desilvia notched a layup and an and one to bring the Valiants closer to the Mariners (22-4,17-3 Skyline) towards the end of the half. After the team got the ball back in the beginning of the third Shore inbounded the ball to Coutu. She then dribbled past all of USMMA and took the ball coast-to-coast to tie the score up at 30 apiece.
 
The Valiants and Mariners traded off the lead but Shore gained it once again with a three-pointer to start the fourth off. Her shot electrified the gymnasium and Manhattanville was able to keep the lead for a few minutes. Pemberton got the lead back for the Valiants after Shore grabbed a defensive rebound, threw the ball down court to Pemberton who made a breakaway layup. After that shot, USMMA took a small lead and freshman Julia Torreso (Stratford, Conn./Stratford) was the final Valiant to make a shot on the court.
 
Although the Valiants fell short today, many individual, season and team records were set this season. Coutu notched her 1,000th career point, coach Kate Vlahakis tallied her 100th win, freshman Jamie Smith (Scottsdale, Ariz./Desert Mountain) had four double-doubles, Pemberton had a season high of 21 rebounds in a single game, Shore ended the season tied for third in Manhattanville three-pointers made in a single season and so much more was acomplished by the team.