PURCHASE, N.Y. – Even when suffering through his lowest scoring game of the season, junior Trevoy Pointer (Dallas, Texas) still finds a way to come through in the clutch, and as the result the Manhattanville men's basketball team will go into Madison Square Garden with a 7-1 record.
The junior guard sunk the game-winning bucket with 3.1 seconds left on the clock and the Valiants down by a point, as Manhattanville squeezed by a feisty Baruch College squad, 68-67, in a thrilling non-conference contest on Thursday night at Kennedy Gymnasium.
The last-second heroics made the best out of what was a mostly forgettable night for the junior All-American candidate, who had shot just 3 of 10 from the field for nine points up until the final four seconds of the game. But after Baruch turned the ball over with 20 seconds left, the Valiants put the ball in the hands of their surest scorer and he responded with a jumper from just inside the three-point arc at the top of the key that found nothing but net and set off the Kennedy crowd.
The shot somewhat obscured another excellent effort by senior Peter Mehmel (Queens, N.Y.) on both sides of the court, as the forward posted the first double-double of his career with a team-high 16 points (on 8-of-12 shooting) and a career-best 10 rebounds. Senior Lamar Glass (Dallas, Texas) also had a good effort with 10 points and seven boards, while junior Glen Rodriguez (Ponce, Puerto Rico) chipped in 11 and four for the home team as well.
Baruch's Chris Beauchamp led all scorers with 19 points and added six boards and a game-high four steals, while Sean Loftus just missed a double-double of his own with nine points and a game-high 11 rebounds for the Bearcats.
The late drama didn't seem like it would be necessary for much of the evening, as Manhattanville never trailed until the final two minutes and seemed comfortable with its lead throughout the game. But up by six (65-59) with 5:12 left, the Valiants went over five minutes without a field goal to let the Bearcats back into the game, starting with a huge four-point play from Lionel Hilaire at the 4:25 mark. A free-throw by Rodriguez had the Valiants clinging to a two-point lead with 1:52 on the clock, but Beauchamp sunk a long-range missile with 1:33 remaining to give the visitors their first lead of the game at 67-66.
Manhattanville didn't help itself by turning the ball over on its next two possessions, but the home team caught a huge break when it chose not to foul right away and instead forced a turnover by Loftus to get one more chance down just a point. Given new life for the second consecutive game, the Valiants turned to the same person who sunk the game-tying shot at the end of regulation on Saturday at King's (Pa.) College – only this time, Pointer's bucket gave his team the outright win.
The Valiants had the shooting edge as well as the scoring one for much of the night, finishing at 49.1 percent (27 for 55) from the field compared to just 36.7 percent (22 for 60) for the Bearcats.
Manhattanville (7-1, 2-0 Freedom) will now take the fourth-best start to a season in program history into the World's Most Famous Arena: the Valiants return to the court next at Madison Square Garden on Sunday, December 19, when the team takes on Purchase College at 7 p.m. in a battle too big to decide on Anderson Hill Road. If you did not purchase your ticket for the game, you can catch all the action live on WMVL 88.1 FM starting at 6:50 p.m.