Boxscore

DALLAS, Pa. – The Manhattanville men's basketball team fell into an early hole and could never fully recover in suffering a 72-58 defeat at the hands of Misericordia University in a Freedom Conference men's basketball contest on Saturday afternoon at the Anderson Center.

The Valiant fefense did very little to slow down a hot-shooting Misericordia (10-6, 3-2 Freedom) squad on Saturday, as the Cougars shot 58.0 percent (29 for 50) from the field for the day and 45.0 percent (9 for 20) from beyond the arc. Manhattanville, meanwhile, shot 44.2 percent (23 for 52) from the field on the afternoon.

Misericordia was carried offensively by three players, as Robbie Johnson, Ethan Eichhorst and Jeff Slanovec combined for 47 points. Johnson led all players with 21 points on 9-of-10 shooting, including the 1,000th point of his career, while Eichhorst added 14 points and Slanovec chipped in 12 – all from behind the three-point arc.

Junior Felipe Vargas (Miami, Fla./Miami Christian) was the leading scorer for the Valiants coming off the bench, shooting 5 of 11 from the field on the way to matching his season high with 13 points. Classmate Trevoy Pointer (Dallas, Texas/Skyline) added 11 points for Manhattanville as well, but the team's other four starters combined for just 13 points as the visitors struggled offensively against the Cougars.

The homestanding Cougars shot 59.3 percent (16 of 27) from the field in the first half to jump out to an early lead, while the Valiants connected on just 34.6 percent (9 of 26) in the first half. As a result, the Cougars carried a 41-20 lead into halftime, putting Manhattanville in a bad position early.

After senior Peter Mehmel (Queens, N.Y./Archbishop Molloy) scored Manhattanville's first four points to put the visitors up by one early, Pointer followed with five of the team's next seven points to make the score 11-all 6:21 into the first half. However, 10 straight points by the Cougars started a game-changing 19-2 run, which gave the home team a comfortable 30-13 lead with 4:34 left in the frame.

Down by 21 after 20 minutes, Misericordia kept its foot on the gas in the second half, growing their lead to 31 points with 12:47 left in the contest. Down by 29 with 5:29 left, Manhattanville made a 13-0 run thanks to 10 points from Vargas to get within 16 at 69-53 with two minutes left, but the Valiant comeback ran out of time in the end.

Manhattanville will return home to Kennedy Gym on Wednesday night, as the Valiants host Delaware Valley College in a Freedom Conference matchup at 8 p.m. The game will be video streamed live online at GoValiants.TV starting at 7:50 p.m.