KINGS POINT, N.Y. (Feb. 25, 2023) – The USMMA Mariners women's basketball team made February 25, 2023 a night to remember in Kings Point as they reclaimed the Skyline Conference title. Merchant Marine took down the Manhattanville Valiants 56-47 to send Liebertz Gymnasium into delirium. The Valiants' season ended with a 21-4 record (16-2 Skyline) while the Mariners extended their winning streak to 14 and move to 24-2 (16-2 Skyline). The club's 24 wins in a season and 14 wins in a row are both program records.
 
Game Links

• Box Score
• WATCH The Final Seconds Tick Off
• WATCH: Postgame Interview With Most Outstanding Player Senior Lauren Hunter
• WATCH: Postgame Interview With Senior Madison Demos 

The No. 1 seed Mariners and No. 2 seed Valiants showed every bit of why they deserved to be in the Skyline Finals. Both teams' defenses were on top of their games in the opening half. The two offenses shot a combined 19-for-61 (31%) in the opening 20 minutes.
 
Despite the slow start by both offenses, what cannot get lost in the shuffle of the first half is the superb play senior Madison Demos (Downers Grove, Ill.). Similar to the St. Joseph's-Long Island game on Thursday night, senior Lauren Hunter (Tinley Park, Ill.) was the number one priority for Manhattanville early on. Hunter started the game 1-for-7, but her fellow senior Demos picked her up.
 
Demos quite frankly kept the Mariners in the game going into the half. She accounted for 10 of the Mariners' 23 points at the break by shooting 5-for-8 from the field.
 
In the Mariners' last meeting with Manhattanville, a 59-49 overtime win, USMMA trailed 26-22 at the half. Tonight was nearly a rerun, with the Valiants leading 27-23 at halftime.
 
At halftime, head coach Matt Dempsey preached the importance of attitude and effort as per Hunter in her postgame interview. In her final game at Liebertz Gymnasium, Hunter, and the rest of the roster, took the head coach's words to heart.
 
What the Mariners' defense pulled off in the final 20 minutes was nothing short of remarkable. USMMA's second-ranked defense held the patented Valiants offense to 20 points in the entire second half. Manhattanville could only muster a 6-for-28 mark from the field and that of course opened the door for the Mariners' offense.
 
For the second straight game, sophomore Kaira Winston (Chesterfield, Va.) came to life in the third quarter despite foul trouble. Winston went 3-for-5 from the field for six huge points. The sophomore's shiftiness opened lanes for Hunter, who torched the Valiants with 14 second-half points.
 
Hunter, who went on to be named the Most Outstanding Player of the Skyline Conference Tournament, went 5-for-8 from the field and 4-for-6 from the line in the final 20 minutes. Despite the Mariners' offensive resurgence, they only held a slim 42-36 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
 
The teams traded makes and misses to start the fourth. Manhattanville pulled as close as 44-42 with 5:59 remaining. Yet the Mariners never looked back. Leading 48-42 with 4:10 on the clock, Demos and Hunter put the team on the backs scoring six points for the Mariners in a 1:52 span. The only thing that was missing? A capper three-pointer.
 
Despite starting the night 0-for-9 from three, the Mariners found themselves leading 52-44 with 1:35 to go. Sophomore Grace Jackson (Parma, Idaho), who was 0-for-5 to start the game from deep sent Liebertz Gymnasium into a frenzy with an air strike from the top to pull the Mariners up 11 at 55-44.
 
As the final seconds ticked off the clock, euphoria ensued in Kings Point. One year after being knocked off the throne of the Skyline Conference by Mount Saint Mary, the Mariners were back on top of the mountain for the third time in four years.
 
USMMA will now head to a shoe parlor to spit-shine their shoes to go dancing in the 2023 NCAA Tournament. The Mariners' first round opponent will be revealed on Monday in the NCAA Tournament selection show on www.NCAA.com.
 
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