Women's Basketball

Delaware Valley College 66, Manhattanville College 60

DOYLESTOWN (PA) - Freshmen Brittany Battinieri and Jessica Ruvolis combined for 28 points and hit big free throws in the final 20 seconds as Delaware Valley College outlasted Manhattanville College, 66-60, in a Freedom Conference game.

The win put the Aggies over the .500 mark at 10-9. More importantly, they improved to 5-2 and a three-way tie with FDU-Florham and King's College for second place in the Freedom. The Valiants, in their first year in the conference fell to 8-10 and 1-6.

The game featured 14 ties and 11 lead changes with the last coming at 12:06 when Battinieri drained a trey to give Delaware Valley a 49-46 lead. Manhattanville stayed within two possessions until the Aggies upped their advantage to eight, 62-54, when Mandi Wilson hit a jumper with 3:17 to go.

The Valiants rallied with six straight points as Lauren Grenier and Olivia Nastasi each hit a free throw and Nastasi and Janice Kane followed with layups. Kane's basket made it 62-60 with 37 seconds remaining.

Battinieri was fouled with 17.6 seconds to go, putting the rookie on the line for a one-in-one situation. She calmly hit the first and drained the second for a 64-60 advantage. Ruvolis then stole a pass on the defensive end and she was fouled with 10.3 ticks left on the clock. She hit both shots in the double bonus and Delaware Valley had the victory.

The first half saw momentum swing back and forth with Manhattanville scoring the last five points of the stanza to take a 32-30 lead into the intermission. Nastasi had 15 points for the Valiants, who shot 50 percent from the in the half. Battinieri and Moira Donohue combined for 17 of the Aggies' 30 points. The second half was much of the same before Delaware Valley sealed the contest with the late free throws.

Battinieri finished the contest with a team-high 16 points while Donohue added 13 points and six steals. Ruvolis notched 12 points and seven boards and Jen McCarthy poured in 12. Brooke Dittmar scored just six points but dominated the boards with 19 rebounds. The Aggies were without the services of their second-leading scorer and rebounder in Kim Vennera (14.9 ppg, 7.5 rpg), who was sidelined with an injury.

Nastasi scored a game-high 25 points and was the lone Manhttanville player in double figures. Jess Delagrange and Simona Gordon were next with eight and seven points respectively.