MIAMI, FL – The Hartwick men's basketball team forced the Manhattanville Valiants to season-low marks as the Hawks were able to come away with a 69-66 win to begin action at the sixth annual 2016 HoopMIA D3 Holiday Shootout. Winning its first of two games in South Florida, 'Wick advances to 6-2 on the season, having won its last four. Manhanttanville, dropping four of its last five, falls to 3-5 overall.

Joey Lufkin (Argyle, NY/Argyle) paced the Hawks with a team-high 16 points to go along with six boards, just one shy of his season-best tally.

Justin Pratt (North Kingstown, RI/North Kingstown HS) and Jake Sinicki (Endicott, NY/Maine-Endwell HS) also scored in double-figures ending with 14 and 13 points, respectively, while Sinicki added five rebounds and two steals. Pratt's four made three-pointers were the most against Manhattanville this season while the team's eight tied for the most by any of its opponents.  

Steals leader Brandon LaForest (Cohoes, NY/Cohoes HS) finished with three as the Hawks registered eight, only two short of their season-high mark.

Marc du Moulin (Altamont, NY/Guilderland HS) pulled down a team-high seven boards to compliment five points in 22 minutes out on the floor.

Manhattanville shot 19-percent from three, sinking just one more than its season-low. The Valiants also tied a season-worst at the charity stripe only converting 8-of-13.

Two Valiants attained double-doubles with Alex Tucci's game-leading 17 points and 13 boards and reserve Dwayne Frazier's 14 points and 12 rebounds.

To begin action in South Florida, Hartwick put up nine uninterrupted points and they would continue to surge well into the midway mark.

After facing its largest deficit of the game down 10 at 8:37, Manhattanville began to claw its way back though unable to cut into its deficit by more than four until about five minutes to go in the first half.

At 5:31, Frazier got in the paint and right to the cup to see his team only behind three, 23-20. However, Pratt would up the Hawks' advantage yet again on a long trey from a pass from Justin Carruthers (Greenwich, NY/Greenwich HS) to put them back up six just 20 seconds later.

Manhattanville continued to fight, eventually knotting the score with less than a minute to go in the opening stanza, when its leading scorer, Tucci, connected from behind the arc for a 31-31 tie score.

Sinicki concluded the first-half's scoring finding space in the paint with the shot clock turned off giving Hartwick a two-point advantage heading into the locker room, 33-31.

The Valiants' Charles Nardone started the second half scoring 1:20 in splitting a pair at the charity stripe to bring the Hawks' foe back within one. An empty possession followed for the Hawks and would ultimately lead to the Valiants' first lead of the game on a banked shot from Nardone from inside, 34-33.

Both teams remained in striking distance of one another with neither able to exceed a four-point lead. At 13:33, that feat would be reached, as Lufkin and Pratt alternated the long-ball to advance the Hawks' lead back up to eight at 12:58, 53-45.

Hartwick continued to perform in the forefront pushing its lead to as much as nine with a little over six minutes to go in regulation, 63-54.

Two minutes before the final buzzer, that Hawks' control was nearly threatened as Manhattanville closed the gap to within one point, crediting a 12-4 run capped off by Nardone, 67-66.

However, that would be the last made bucket for the Valiants as they had two possessions with a chance to take the lead with under a minute left but turned the ball over. Hartwick free throws with one tick left closed out the victory.

Hartwick returns to the hardwood tomorrow in its final non-conference tilt facing off with LaGrange College at 4 p.m.