MADISON, N.J. – After falling into an early hole, the Manhattanville College men's basketball team outscored FDU-Florham by 35 points over the final 30 minutes as the Valiants picked up an 82-61 victory over the Devils in MAC Freedom action on Wednesday night at the Ferguson Recreation Center.
 
The team's second straight conference win moves Manhattanville (11-7, 4-3 MAC Freedom) into sole possession of third place in the MAC Freedom at the midway point of the conference slate, one game behind DeSales University for second and one game ahead of Eastern University, Misericordia University and Wilkes University.
 
Sophomore Alex Tuci (New Rochelle, N.Y./New Rochelle)continued his strong second semester with a game-high 20 points, his fourth 20-point outing in the last six games, in addition to nine rebounds and three blocks. Junior Charles Nardone (Stony Point, N.Y./North Rockland) followed with 18 points and eight rebounds, and sophomore Dom Arena (Bronx, N.Y./Cardinal Spellman) finished with 10 points, five assists and three assists.
 
Senior Anthony Maestre (Bronx, N.Y./Mount St. Michael Academy) also reached double figures with 12 points to go with six rebounds and five steals, in the process moving past Trevoy Pointer '12 for fifth place in program history with 1,516 career points.
 
The two teams could not have started the game more differently, as FDU-Florham hit eight of its first 13 shots from the field while Manhattanville went 3-for-20 to start the contest. As a result, the Devils jumped out to a 20-6 lead over the first 8:32 of the opening half.
 
However, the tables turned dramatically after that, as the Valiants hit 10 of their next 15 shots from the field and limited FDU to 2-of-16 shooting over the next 8:07. The resulting 27-7 Valiant run was led by 10 points from Tuci and seven from Nardone to put Manhattanville up 33-25 with 3:21 to go in the half. The visitors grew their lead to as many as 14 after a layup from senior Andrew Winter (Queens, N.Y./St. Francis Prep) made it a 44-30 lead with 36 seconds left in the half before a Veon Lassiter layup made it a 44-32 score at the break.
 
The Valiants scored the first eight points out of the locker room to build up a 20-point advantage early in the second stanza and the visitors were never seriously challenged the rest of the way, with the lead never dropping below 13 points. The margin ballooned to as many as 23 points with 3:52 remaining following back-to-back layups from freshman Willie Britton (Queens, N.Y./Monsignor McClancy) before settling at 21 after a jumper from sophomoreBrian Haggerty (Bayside, N.Y./St. Francis Prep) with 60 seconds left.
 
Manhattanville, which moves to 10-2 in games in which it scores at least 80 points, finished the night shooting 42.5 percent (34 of 80) from the field. The Valiants were helped out by some poor shooting from FDU, which connected on just 22 of 67 attempts (32.8 percent) from the field. The visitors also dominated down low, posting a 58-28 edge in points in the paint.
 
Manhattanville will look to extend its winning streak to three games on Saturday, when the Valiants travel to Wilkes University for a 2 p.m. tip with the Colonels.