PURCHASE (NY) – Manhattanville College had five players notch double figures in scoring as the Valiants registered a 76-68 home victory over Delaware Valley and put the Aggies in a must-win situation on Saturday in order to reach the Freedom Conference tournament.
Another wild night of action left the conference standings in a log jam. DeSales University wrapped up the top seed in next week's tournament as it improved to 10-3 in league action. Misericordia University clinched a spot but not a seed with a win over King's College. Four teams are still alive for two spot and three of them are tied at 7-6, including Delaware Valley, Manhattanville and FDU-Florham, which lost at home on a last-second basket by Eastern University (3-11). King's is at 6-7 and very much alive in the race.
For the Aggies (12-12), it is plain and simple: they must win at home on Saturday against FDU-Florham (3:00 p.m.) to have a chance to defend their Freedom Conference championship. A loss to FDU-Florham puts the Devils back in the playoffs and eliminates Delaware Valley as a possible tiebreaker with Manhattanville or a three-way tie with Manhattanville and King's does not favor the squad (tiebreakers would go down to head-to-head records with DeSales and the Aggies lost twice to the Bulldogs. Earlier this year, Delaware Valley traveled to FDU-Florham and posted a 73-57 win.
Delaware Valley could've clinched a spot on Tuesday with a win since King's fell at Misericordia, but the Aggies could not get going from 3-point land all evening. They entered the game ranked in the top 25 in both 3-point percentage (19th at 39.9%) and 3-point made (21st with 9.2 per game) but, instead, shot just 2-for-18 (11.1%) from beyond the arc. Manhattanville was not much better at 6-for-24, but the Valiants held a 49-39 edge on the boards including 14 at the offensive end which led to 16 second-chance points.
The first half was an ugly one as both teams combined for just 43 points with the Valiants taking a slim 22-21 advantage into the break. It was Delaware Valley's lowest first-half point total of the year but also the fewest points it allowed in a half. Neither team shot better than 31 percent from the field with the Aggies hitting eight of 27 shots (29.6%) while Manhattanville was 9-for-29 (31%). Both combined to shoot just 2-for-18 from 3-point land and each squad committed 12 turnovers.
Delaware Valley trailed by eight when five points from Nick Sullivan and three from Francis Arnold led an 8-0 run that tied the game at the midway point of the half. Manhattanville scored 10 of the next 15 points but an Arnold layup with 16 seconds left and two free throws by Sullivan off a Valiant technical foul with nine ticks to go made it the one-point score at the break.
Chris Moran scored on a layup just eight seconds into the second stanza to give Delaware Valley its first lead of the game. Manhattanville responded with a 16-2 run and a 38-25 advantage with 15:09 left. Colin Campbell and Anthony Maestre combined for 11 of those points for the Valiants.
Manhattanville built the lead to 14, 43-29, when the Aggies went on a 16-1 run to erase the deficit and take a 45-44 lead with 7:59 remaining. Moran had eight points in the spurt while Arnold (three) and Zach Sibel (five) combined for the other eight.
However, Andrew Winter regained the lead for good with the Valiants as he hit four straight free throws and, after an Arnold layup, connected on a 3-pointer for a 51-47 score with 6:40 to go. The Aggies pulled to within one at 53-52 after Moran hit a free throw, but Manhattanville put the game away with a 13-2 spurt and a 12-point advantage with 2:36 on the clock.
Maestre and Juan Camacho had 15 points apiece to pace the balanced Valiant attack. Winter added 14 points while Campbell and Connor Quigley had 12 and 10 points respectively. Jack Bramswig added eight points and a game-high 15 rebounds.
Moran led Delaware Valley with 22 points while Arnold had 21 points, six rebounds, four assists and four steals. He entered the game ranked fourth in Division III in steals with an average of 3.19 per game. Sibel had 10 points off the bench in the loss.