PURCHASE, N.Y. – The Manhattanville College women's basketball team got back in the win column on Thursday night with a 29-point victory over Yeshiva University inside Kennedy Gymnasium. The 71-42 win improves the Valiants' record on the year to 9-1 overall and 5-1 against the Skyline Conference whilst staying undefeated at home with a 7-0 record.
The red-hot
Spencer Shore (Boca Raton, Fla./West Boca Raton) was once again the catalyst for the Valiants offense with a team-high 18 points. Shore has now posted double-figures offensively in five straight games, scoring 20 in three of those contests. On Thursday, Shore shot 41 percent from the field and hit four three pointers while earning a season-best four steals. Shore was joined by
Claudia Valentin (Cambridge, Mass./Cambridge Rindge & Latin School) and
Ali Mikaele (Silver Spring, Md./St. Andrew's Episcopal School) in double figures, with the duo scoring 13 and 12, respectively.
Speaking of Mikaele, the senior forward earned her second straight double-double with a team-high 12 boards on the night. Mikaele collected five of her rebounds off the offensive glass.
Carmen Rosemond (New Haven, Conn./Hill Regional Career) had eight rebounds and
Niyona Smith (Towson, MD/Concordia Prep) added six as Manhattanville outrebounded Yeshiva 48-41 on the night.
Despite the final result, the journey to get the win was not pretty nor easy. The Valiants shot just 15 percent in the first quarter and were 0-for-3 from beyond the arc as the Maccabees held a lead that hovered around three points for most of the opening stanza. The Valiants could have easily fallen into an early hole had it not been for a 6-for-10 mark from the free throw line in the first quarter that kept them within shouting distance. With the early struggles, Yeshiva took a 15-12 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Things started turning for the home team's favor in the second as Yeshiva began to cool off, just 3-for-18 from the field in the quarter for six total points. A 6-0 Manhattanville run to open up the second erased the Yeshiva lead, while the Valiants would close out the half with the final seven points over the closing 3:48 to head off the court with their biggest lead of the night at that point, 27-21.
Leading by four just over two and a half minutes into the second half, the home team used a 14-3 run to go up by double digits and never look back. The Valiants shot 50 percent in the final 20 minutes to pull away and close out the night. Valentin was a perfect 4-for-4 in the half, while Shore scored 12 points over the final two quarters of a 5-for-7 line. Manhattanville led 49-32 at the end of the third and outscored the Maccabees 22-10 in the final quarter to secure the Skyline win.
Up Next
The Valiants close out 2021 on Saturday, hosting Gwynedd Mercy for the final game of the calendar year at 2 p.m.
