PURCHASE, N.Y. – In a back-and-forth game that featured nine ties and 14 lead changes, Delaware Valley got a career-high 29 points from Daulton Derr and the Aggies hit their free throws down the stretch to deal the Manhattanville men's basketball team a hard-to-swallow 66-62 defeat on Tuesday night at Kennedy Gymnasium.
Derr and Valiant senior Trevoy Pointer (Dallas, Texas/Skyline) had their own mini-duel over the course of the night, with Derr finishing with 29 on 10 of 17 shooting and Pointer finishing with 27 points on 11 of 20 shooting from the field. Derr had a major helper on his side, however, as Nathan Bollinger chipped in 17 points. Sophomore Jack Bramswig (Pleasantville, N.Y./Pleasantville) was the next leading scorer for the Valiants with eight points, with junior Colin Campbell (Miami, Fla./LaSalle) and senior Jack Railton-Woodcock (Melbourne, Australia/Scotch College) adding seven apiece.
Pointer reached yet another milestone for the Valiants in a losing effort, moving into fifth place on the school's all-time scoring list with 1,496 points – surpassing Brian McDonagh '94 – and sits within reach of John Danielski '04 for fourth all-time at Manhattanville with one game left to go.
It was the Pointer show to start out the game for Manhattanville, as the senior connected on six of his first seven shots to singlehandedly hold an 11-7 lead over Delaware Valley at the five-minute mark of the first half. The Valiants maintained their lead until the 10:20 mark of the half, when a Nate Lewis layup put the Aggies up by one at 18-17. The visitors scored seven straight points soon after to earn the biggest lead of the night by either team, eight points (30-22), with 5:39 left in the half.
The Valiants held Del Val to just one point the rest of the way, however, and went into the half down by six at 31-25. Derr led all scorers with 16 points in the opening frame, followed closely by Pointer with 13 points.
Manhattanville started the second half strong with eight straight points, including six by Pointer and two by Railton-Woodcock, and took back the lead (33-31) with a pair of Pointer free throws 3:54 into the half. The rest of the game featured tense moments on almost every possession, as the lead on either side did not exceed five points and spent most of the time within one possession.
After falling behind by four points with 4:01 left, Manhattanville went on a brief 5-0 run to regain the lead, as Campbell hit a free throw and later forced a turnover and converted a transition bucket at the other end to give the Valiants a 56-55 lead with 2:18 remaining. Derr came back the other way to drain a jumper and put the Aggies back up one, but a Blackmon freebie knotted the score for the ninth and final time at 57-all with 1:41 left.
Bollinger made one free throw to put his team back up by a point, and a Pointer layup just rolled off the rim and out before Derr answered again at the other end to make the score 60-57 Aggies with 40 ticks on the clock. Bramswig made a tough bucket in traffic after grabbing an offensive board to keep the Valiants in it, but Delaware Valley kept hitting their free throws to prevent the Valiants from getting back to even.
Senior Jeff Ventura (Fort Lauderdale, Fla./Cypress Bay) had a good look at a three that would have tied the game with 11 seconds left, but the rebound hopped over the backboard and Bollinger made two free throws at the other end to give Del Val a 64-59 lead with eight seconds left. Pointer nailed a three to give the home team some small hope, but Bollinger was immediately fouled and hit two more freebies with five seconds left to seal the victory.
Delaware Valley finished the night shooting 47.6 percent (20 for 42) from the field, while also making 22 free throws on 32 trips to the line (68.8 percent). Manhattanville, meanwhile, did not shoot the ball particularly well from any area of the court, finishing the night at 39.7 percent (23 for 58) from the field and a crushing 9 of 21 from the line (42.9 percent).
Manhattanville (10-14, 4-9 Freedom) will close out the 2011-12 campaign on Saturday, as the Valiants honor their eight seniors with Senior Day festivities prior to its 3 p.m. contest with Misericordia at Kennedy Gym. The game may still be broadcast on GoValiants.TV, so check back to GoValiants.com in the coming days for up-to-date information.