Boxscore

PURCHASE, N.Y. – In a battle of 3-0 teams, junior Ahmad Hassan netted a game-high 25 points and Ramapo College held a massive 43-24 edge on the boards to squeak out an 83-74 victory over Manhattanville in a non-conference men's basketball contest on Tuesday evening at Kennedy Gymnasium.

Hassan was one of four Roadrunners to crack double-figures in the win, thanks to 8-of-12 shooting from the field and a 7-of-10 mark from the line. The junior guard also had five rebounds and four steals for the visitors. Manhattanville was led once again by junior Trevoy Pointer (Dallas, Texas), who registered a team-high 19 points, and senior Lamar Glass (Dallas, Texas), who poured in a season-best 14 points and grabbed six rebounds.

Ramapo had a big advantage on the glass against the smaller Manhattanville squad, pulling down 19 more rebounds – including more rebounds on the offensive glass (22) than the defensive (21). As a result, Ramapo posted a 20-8 edge in second-chance points.

No possession epitomized that advantage more than with four minutes left in the contest, when the Roadrunners hauled in six straight offensive rebounds before finally scoring on their seventh possession to take an 11-point lead with 2:54 remaining. Despite that, Manhattanville was still in the game after a three-pointer by junior Glen Rodriguez (Ponce, Puerto Rico) got the lead down to seven with 1:17 left, and Rodriguez seemed to draw an offensive foul on the Roadrunners to get possession back; however, the referee ruled it a blocking foul, which knocked Rodriguez out of the game and gave Ramapo back its double-digit point edge with a minute left.

The rebounding edge helped to counteract some hot Manhattanville shooting in the second half, as the team went 19 of 31 (61.3 percent) from the field in the second stanza to finish at 49.2 percent (29 of 59) for the night. Ramapo shot 45.2 percent (28 for 62) from the field, yet also went to the free-throw line 33 times and sunk 25 (75.8 percent) to provide the crucial advantage.

Manhattanville stayed with Ramapo for much of the first half, holding a 15-13 lead early in the frame. However, the Valiants went over seven minutes before their next bucket and the Roadrunners went on a 14-0 run to take their biggest lead of the game, 27-15, with nine minutes remaining in the half. The visitors took a seven-point edge (34-27) into halftime.

The Valiants kept plugging away in the second half, however, getting the Ramapo lead down to one point on six different occasions before a jumper by junior Felipe Vargas (Miami, Fla.) with 11:52 remaining gave the home team a 49-48 edge. But once again Ramapo had an immediate answer, scoring 11 straight points to take a 59-49 lead. The Roadrunner lead grew to as many as 15 (69-54) with 6:20 left, and the Valiants ran out of time down the stretch in suffering their first loss of the season.

Manhattanville (3-1) will take a few days off for Thanksgiving before returning to the Kennedy Gym floor on Sunday afternoon, when the Valiants host another tough NJAC foe in William Paterson University starting at 2 p.m.  Live video coverage of the game will begin on GoValiants.TV at 1:50 p.m.