PURCHASE, N.Y. – Led by four scorers in double-figures, the Manhattanville College women's basketball remained undefeated in the early season with a 76-55 win over Keystone College in Kennedy Gymnasium on Saturday afternoon. With the victory, the Valiants improve to 3-0 overall in the 2021-22 season.

Rookie Niyona Smith (Towson, MD/Concordia Prep) had a great performance, leading the team in scoring with 18 points and collecting her first collegiate double-double with 10 rebounds. Ali Mikaele (Silver Spring, Md./St. Andrew's Episcopal School) scored 15 points, while Spencer Shore (Boca Raton, Fla./West Boca Raton) added 12 points on a game-high 38 minutes on the court. Claudia Valentin (Cambridge, Mass./Cambridge Rindge & Latin School) reach double-digits offensively for the third straight game to open the year, netting 12 points on a 5-for-7 day shooting from the field.

Smith's 10 boards also led the Valiants, with four of her rebounds coming off the offensive glass. Shore hauled in nine rebounds and Jamison Agostino (Stony Brook, N.Y./Ward Melville) added seven. Faith Johnson-Desilvia (Riverhead, N.Y./Riverhead) was the team's assist leader for the day with five. Manhattanville had a season-best six blocks in the contest, yet another category led by Smith with three.

Manhattanville would never trail in the contest, earning the lead they would never surrender three and a half minutes into the contest. After the Valiants and Giants traded baskets to a 4-4 tie, a Valentin layup kickstarted a 13- 9 run for the remainder of the first quarter. The 17-13 lead at the end of the opening ten minutes would expand throughout the second quarter, with Agostino draining a three right at the start of the period and Mikaele sinking a pair of free throws to put the Valiant up by nine. Manhattanville would lead by as much as 12 in the half, but a 5-1 Giants run to end the half capped off by a Lee Gordon buzzer-beating three pointer chopped the Manhattanville advantage back to single digits at the half.

Coming out of the locker room, the Valiants immediately took control, scoring the first nine points of the half. Keystone was able to hang around, using a 9-2 run to keep Manhattanville from running away with the game in the third quarter. Neither team was able to get much going offensively in the latter part of the period, as only four points were scored in the last 3:16 of the third off a Shore layup and a pair of Johnson-Desilvia free throws. It was the fourth quarter where the Valiant offense fully came to life with a 28-point frame. Manhattanville shot 47 percent from the field over the final 10 minutes to effectively close out the game.

Up Next
The Valiants will begin conference play on Tuesday night at Sarah Lawrence College.