PURCHASE, N.Y. – Meeting for the first time since the Skyline Championship Finals in February, the Manhattanville University women's basketball team improved to 3-0 to open the season with a 56-53 win over visiting Mount Saint Vincent on Saturday afternoon. The Valiants open conference play with a win, their seventh-straight year with a victory in the conference opener, while the Dolphins drop to 2-2 overall and 1-1 in the Skyline.
Esther Ramos (Queens, N.Y./Forest Hills) led the way all over the hardwood for Manhattanville, earning the first double-double of her career with 16 points and a career-high 11 rebounds. The junior shot .500 from the floor while going 6-for-10 at the charity stripe and added four assists. Her three offensive rebounds trailed only
Niyona Smith's (Baltimore, MD/Concordia Prep) four in the game.
Julie Debrocky (Mahopac, N.Y./Mahopac) flirted with a double-double of her own, scoring 10 points and coming down with nine caroms. The junior guard added three assists, a steal and a block to her solid statline in 35 minutes on the floor.
Gabby Tucker (Port Chester, N.Y./Blind Brook) and Smith both finished with seven points and six rebounds. Tucker continued to make plays all over the court, collecting a team-high five assists and three steals, a takeaway total only matched by
Kathleen O'Mara (Huntington, N.Y./Walt Whitman). Smith added a block and a takeaway to her line, playing in a foul- shortened 28 minutes.
It was another stellar defensive performance from the Valiants, holding the Dolphins to season-lows in points, field goal percentage and three-point percentage. Mount Saint Vincent shot just .274 from the floor and was held to a 3-for-22 rate from beyond the arc, shooting .136 on three-pointers.
Despite the season-lows, Mount Saint Vincent held the upper hand through the opening quarter as Manhattanville went just 4-for-15 from the floor in the opening 10 minutes. The reigning Skyline champ Dolphins opened the day on a 9-0 run, with Erin Smith putting up her first four points of what would be a 24-point outing. Debrocky snapped the Valiants' 0-for-4 start with a jumper to get the home team on the board, but Mount Saint Vincent continued to lead the way as Gretta Baker drilled a three-pointer with 2:30 left in the quarter to put the Dolphins up 14-4. Still facing a 10-point deficit with 90 seconds left in the opener, another Debrocky basket and a pair of Ramos free-throws helped Manhattanville slice into the hole to bring the score to 16-10 at the first intermission.
The tide began to turn as Mount Saint Vincent shot just 20 percent in the second quarter, going 0-for-6 from deep. Conversely, the Valiants hit on 39 percent of their shot attempts, going 3-for-7 on threes. After nearly two and a half scoreless minutes to open the quarter, a layup by Ramos and a three-pointer by
Madison Carlo (Carmel, N.Y./Kennedy Catholic) brought the Valiants back to withing one with 6:28 left in the half. Smith halted Manhattanville's 9-0 run with a layup before Carlo drained another three ball going the other way to tie things up for the first time since the opening tip, 18-18. After trading baskets, Manhattanville got a jumper from Ramos and a three-pointer from
Kumi Tamura (Los Angeles, Calif./Marlborough School) to go up 25-20 with two and a half left to play. The first-half lead peaked at six following another Debrocky bucket, but similarly to how the Valiants ended the quarter prior, the Dolphins scored the final four points of the half to slow Manhattanville down and make the score 27-25 in favor of the home team.
The Valiants could not connect on a three pointer throughout the second half, missing all five of their shots from deep. Combined with the team shooting 25 percent overall from the floor in the third, the Dolphins were able to take the lead back in the third. It was all Manhattanville for the first three and a half minutes back from the locker room, going on a 5-0 run with layups by Smith and
Kathleen O'Mara (Huntington, N.Y./Walt Whitman) coupled with a Smith free throw. However, the Valiants went cold to close out the quarter, scoring just four total points and hitting only one field goal over the following 6:30. Mount Saint Vincent capitalized as the Dolphins outscored Manhattanville 15-4 the close out the quarter, taking a 40-36 lead into the final quarter.
Manhattanville responded to the deficit with a game-high .533 field goal percentage in the fourth to come back and close out the win. The Dolphins shot just .188 over the final ten minutes and were just 1-for-7 from deep to give the Valiants the opening they needed. Manhattanville jumped back in front 41-40 on a Smith layup and an old-fashioned three-point play by Ramos with 8:18 left in regulation. Smith continued to be a thorn in the Valiants' side as the graduate transfer hit a three and a layup in back-to-back possessions to put the Dolphins up 48-43. Manhattanville settled down, getting three straight baskets from Debrocky, Ramos and O'Mara to take a 49-48 lead. It was Smith again putting the Dolphins up, hitting three free throws to put Mount saint Vincent in front 51-49 under three.
Manhattanville had one last run in them, getting a layup from Tucker, another three-point play by Ramos and a Carlo free throw to make it a two possession game with 90 seconds to play. The Dolphins hit a pair of free throws from Nailea Green but missed all three of their final field goal tries, with O'Mara pulling down the deciding carom with three seconds left to complete the comeback and earn the conference-opening win.
Up Next
Skyline action takes to the road on Tuesday when the Valiants take on Saint Joseph's Brooklyn at 6 p.m.
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