PURCHASE, N.Y. – Down by 20 points with less 10 minutes remaining, the Manhattanville men's basketball team outscored King's (Pa.) 28-7 the rest of the way as the Valiants battled back for an improbable and impressive 76-75 victory in Freedom Conference action on Saturday afternoon at Kennedy Gym.
 
When the Monarchs' Nate Oliver converted a layup with 10:03 left to make the score 68-48 in favor of King's (10-7, 3-3 Freedom), the game looked all but lost for the home team. But Manhattanville (7-10, 3-3 Freedom) did not go away, using an 18-0 run over the next five minutes to get back within two at 68-66 with 4:56 left.
 
Offensively, sophomore Anthony Maestre (Bronx, N.Y./Mount St. Michael Academy) started the run with a jumper and back-to-back three pointers, and consecutive three-point plays from freshman Andrew Murray (Yonkers, N.Y./Archbishop Stepinac) and senior Jack Bramswig (Pleasantville, N.Y./Pleasantville) completed the long run and got the Valiants right back into the game. But defense also played a huge role, as the team amazingly allowed only one King's shot attempt during the run while forcing a turnover on eight straight Monarch possessions.
 
The Monarchs continued to hold off Manhattanville after the huge run, however, until a clutch three-pointer from junior Connor Quigley (Pelham, N.Y./Pelham Memorial) finally got the home team over the hump at 76-75 with 1:17 remaining. Even after coming all the way back, the Valiants still had to play defense one last time on the final possession, and the team did a superb job of hounding the ball and forcing King's into a wild off-balance three attempt from Joe Caffrey that rimmed out at the buzzer.
 
Over the final 10 minutes, Manhattanville limited King's to 1-for-7 shooting and forced 11 turnovers, while shooting 9-of-18 itself, including 5-of-8 from beyond the arc and 5-of-6 from the free-throw line.
 
Maestre had 10 of his team-leading 17 points in the final quarter of the game, while Quigley hit a trio of three-pointers as part of his 12-point day. Bramswig finished the day with 15 points and a game-high four steals as well for Manhattanville, while classmate Colin Campbell (Miami, Fla./LaSalle) also reached double figures with 10 points to go with a game-high seven assists.
 
The home team also received some quality minutes from Murray and sophomore Darius Christmas (Hackensack, N.J./Paramus Catholic) off the bench in the second half. Murray scored three points with an assist and a steal in seven minutes, while Christmas chipped in three points, two assists and two steals in eight minutes of work.
 
The Valiants actually shot the ball better from beyond the arc than in front of it, going 10 of 21 (47.6 percent) on three-point attempts opposed to 15 of 37 (40.5 percent) on two-point shots. King's finished the game with impressive shooting stats, hitting 52.1 percent (25 of 48) of its shots from the field, but the team was done in by 20 turnovers that Manhattanville converted into 31 points – including 13 miscues that led to 22 Valiant points in the second half alone.
 
Manhattanville will look to keep the momentum from Saturday's comeback win going into its next Freedom Conference matchup, when the Valiants travel to DeSales for a Wednesday night meeting with the Bulldogs set for an 8 p.m. tip-off.