Boxscore

BETHLEHEM, Pa. – The Manhattanville men's basketball team looked good early in its attempt to pick up an eighth straight victory, but the Valiants let a 10-point first-half lead slip away and eventually suffered just its second loss of the year, 74-63, to host Moravian College in the championship game of the 33rd annual Greyhound Starters Classic on Monday night at Johnston Hall.

Manhattanville (10-2, 2-0 Freedom) has the fifth-longest winning streak in school history come to an end with the loss, while Moravian (5-5, 0-1 Landmark) earns its third straight victory and the title of its home tournament.

For Manhattanville, junior Trevoy Pointer (Dallas, Texas/Skyline) and freshman Jack Bramswig (Pleasantville, N.Y./Pleasantville) both reached double figures in scoring for the second straight game on the way to All-Tournament honors. Pointer led all players with a game-high 24 points on 10-of-19 shooting and also added five rebounds, three assists, three steals and a block. Bramswig chipped in 10 points on perfect 4-of-4 shooting from the field to go with three boards, three assists and a rejection.

Tournament Most Valuable Player D.J. Strayhorn of Moravian had 16 points in the victory, along with fellow All-Tournament team honoree Chris Cullen, who had a team-best 18 points and eight rebounds on the night.

The game started very well for the visitors, as Manhattanville jumped out to a 16-6 lead 6:21 into the contest thanks in large part to four points each from Pointer, Bramswig and senior Peter Mehmel (Queens, N.Y./Archbishop Molloy). The lead was still 10 with 9:40 left in the half before Moravian made the first of its many runs on the night, a 9-0 spurt that brought the home team back within a possession at 22-21, but the Valiants came right back with a 10-2 run of their own that got the advantage back up to nine with 2:13 remaining.

And although the visitors kept the lead into halftime without having trailed in the opening half, a three-pointer by Kenny Gula and a layup by Cullen gave Manhattanville only a four-point cushion (32-28) headed into the break. Pointer led all scorers with nine points at intermission, as the Valiants shot 48.3 percent from the field and Moravian had a ton of trouble connecting from long range (3 of 17).

Manhattanville maintained its lead for the first five minutes of the second half, before a three-pointer by Strayhorn knotted the score at 41-all and a bucket by Garrett Johnson with 13:43 left gave the Greyhounds their first lead of the night. Those five points kick-started an 11-0 run for the home team that was capped by back-to-back threes from Cullen.

Although the Valiants shrunk the deficit to four points on a pair of occasions, the team never got back within one possession the rest of the way. A steal by Mehmel with 2:51 left set up a transition three from Pointer that got the squad back within five (65-60), but after a miss on Manhattanville's next possession Johnson buried a huge three-pointer that put the home team back up eight with 1:42 left.

With time winding down, a pair of missed opportunities on the offensive end required the Valiants to prolong the game via fouling, only to see Moravian hit all six attempts from the charity stripe in the final 48 seconds to secure the victory.

For the game, Moravian shot 44.2 percent (23 for 52) from the field, 39.3 percent (11 for 28) from beyond the arc and 89.5 percent (17 of 19) from the line, but the Greyhounds won the game with stellar percentages in all three phases in the second half – including 8 of 11 shooting from long range and hitting 10 of 11 shots from the line. Manhattanville shot 47.4 percent (27 for 57) from the field on the night, but went just 4 of 14 from beyond the arc and 5 of 12 from the line in suffering the defeat.

The Valiants will look to shake off the defeat on Saturday, when the Valiants finally return to Freedom Conference play at Wilkes University starting at 3 p.m. Moravian will travel to Arcadia University on Wednesday at 7 p.m.