PURCHASE, N.Y. - Eastern Women's Basketball fell to Manhattanville College Wednesday night 80-65. After leading 46-37 with just over six minutes left to play in the third quarter, Manhattanville closed out the game on a 43-19 run to claim the win. 

"That's a tough one to swallow," said Head Coach Eric Houston. "We got outplayed and outhustled in the second half. We turned the ball over and missed shots, and you can't do those things and expect to win, especially in this league."    

Manhattanville (11-4, 3-2, MAC Freedom) started the game off quickly taking a 6-2 lead in the opening two minutes of the game. Emily Lavin managed to pull the Eagles within one, 11-10, after hitting a floater in the paint. Regie Robinson got Eastern back within one after hitting a layup to make score 15-14 with just under a minute to play. Then with under ten seconds left to play in the quarter, Robinson stole the ball and dribbled the length of the court to hit a buzzer-beating layup to give the Eagles a 16-15 lead. It was Eastern's first first quarter lead since the Farmingdale State game on December 15th when it led 21-20. 

After taking Eastern took an initial 21-15 lead early in the second quarter, the Valiants managed to tie the game up at 21-21 right after the 7-minute mark. Tori Grossi hit a long jump shot to stretch the Eagles lead to five at 34-29 with just over a minute to play in the half. However, once again the Valiants managed to come back. After Manhattanville had hit a layup with under 30 seconds left to play in the half, it stole the ensuing inbounds pass and netted another layup to make the score 34-33. The Eagles managed to hold on to their lead though as the horn sounded and the teams headed to the locker room. It was the Eagles first halftime lead since leading Farmingdale State at the half on December 15th, 42-30. Lavin and Robinson combined for 24 of 34 first half points, with 14 and ten respectively. 

"It felt good to put a good half of basketball together and finally take a lead into the half," continued Houston. "We have to a better job of closing out the half and not giving away easy baskets like that but to finally put an opening 20 minutes together was great to see." 

Lavin opened the quarter on a 6-0 run to stretch the Eagles lead to 40-33 just under two minutes into the third quarter. Taylor Azer and Taylor Price hit back-to-back 3-pointers to extend the lead to 46-37 with  6:29 left to play in the quarter. That's when the game turned on its head.

The Valiants responded with 3-pointer of their own to make it 46-40 just 20 seconds later. Manhattanville tied the game up at 46-46, before taking its first lead since the 1:33 mark of the first quarter Manhattanville at 48-46. Price stopped the scoring spree momentarily when she hit a jumper at 2:25 mark to stop a nearly four-minute scoring drought by the Eagles offense. By the time the buzzer sounded Manhattanville had managed to close out the quarter on a 20-4 run and lead 57-50 at the end of the third.

Eastern was unable to stop the Valiants offense in the fourth quarter as Manhattanville rolled up 23 points on the Eagles. Lavin managed to pull Eastern within five at 59-54 and even had a chance to cut it the deficit to four with an and-one opportunity but missed the free throw attempt. That was the closest the Eagles would get for the rest of the game as the Valiants pulled away stretching their lead to double-digits with just under six minutes left to play in the quarter. A pair of Robinson free throws moments later got Eastern back within nine, but Manhattanville answered right back and closed out the game on a 12-6 run to complete the comeback and cap off its incredible 43-19 run to close out the game.  

"There just really isn't a whole lot that can be said," said Houston. "They made the plays necessary to win and we didn't. It's certainly impressive to watch a team go on a run like that. We as a team just have to do a better job of pulling ourselves together in those tough moments and believing we can make a stop."

Lavin finished the game 12-of-20 from the field shooting (.600) and was Eastern's leading scorer with 25 points. Robinson scored 17 points and totaled 11 rebounds to post her fifth double-double of the season while Emily McPeak rounded out the double-digit scoring for Eastern with 12 points. 

Ashley Franklin led all Manhattanville scorers with 20 points and 11 rebounds. Ashley Raaf netted 16 points while Bri Pabon and Kayleah McGuire each scored 11 and ten points respectively. 

"We have to learn from this fast and move on," concluded Houston. "This is just one of those game where if you don't get over it, it can beat you twice, and we can't dwell on it any longer. We have another game coming up that we need to be ready for in Misericordia on Saturday." 

Eastern hosts Misericordia on January 23rd at 1 pm.