Box Score PURCHASE, N.Y. – Down by 10 points with six minutes remaining, the Manhattanville men's basketball team rallied to take a lead but could not complete the comeback, as a desperation three-pointer from senior Colin Campbell (Miami, Fla./LaSalle) came just barely after time had expired in the Valiants' 73-71 loss to Eastern in both teams' Freedom Conference opener on Wednesday night at Kennedy Gym.
 
After Eastern took a two-point lead with 0.8 left on the clock following a made free throw by Shaquan Turk, Turk intentionally missed the second and it was grabbed by senior Jack Bramswig (Pleasantville, N.Y./Pleasantville), who immediately called time out. The referees conferred and put 0.5 seconds left on the game clock, but the Valiants still needed to go three-quarters of the court. Junior Connor Quigley (Pelham, N.Y./Pelham Memorial) inbounded along the far endline to Campbell, who turned and launched a shot that got nothing but net; however, the shot came after the buzzer had sounded and, after a brief referee's conference, the shot was waived off.
 
The moment-too-late shot put a damper on a nice late comeback by the Valiants, who trailed by seven points with 3:51 remaining.  A three-point play by sophomore Juan Camacho (Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic/New Horizons) and a Bramswig layup got the deficit down to two points (70-68) with 1:44 left. Campbell then stole the ball from Anthony Parenti on the subsequent possession and fed sophomore Anthony Maestre (Bronx, N.Y./Mount St. Michael Academy) for an and-one bucket that put Manhattanville ahead, 71-70, with 1:31 on the clock.
 
Both teams missed opportunities on their next possession, eventually leaving Eastern with the ball and a one-second difference in the shot clock and game clock. The Eagles' Austin Carroll was fouled with 22 seconds left, and the freshman calmly sank two free throws to put his team back up by one. The Valiants turned the ball over on their next possession and the game seemed to be over, but there was still plenty of action left in the final 1.5 seconds, even if it didn't go the Valiants' way.
 
Malcolm Garrison and Jimmie Willis were huge for Eastern in the win, with Garrison leading all scorers with 24 points on 8-of-11 shooting and Willis adding 21 points, six rebounds, four steals and three assists. Manhattanville did a great job containing Parenti, the Eagles' leading scorer, who scored only two points on 1-of-7 shooting with 10 turnovers.
 
All five Valiant starters reached double figures on the score sheet, led by Bramswig with 15 points to go with five rebounds and five steals. Campbell added 14 points, five assists and four steals, while Maestre had 11 points and a game-high seven assists. Camacho had 12 points and sophomore Andrew Winter (Queens, N.Y./St. Francis Prep) chipped in 11 as well for the home team.
 
After the teams traded the lead a few times in the early going, Eastern grabbed the lead with six minutes gone by in the first half and held onto it for almost the entire game. The Eagles had a lead of 12 points on four separate occasions, the last of which came on a Turk layup that made the score 60-48 with 10:51 remaining in the second half, before Manhattanville made its late run to set up the last-second dramatics.
 
Both teams shot the ball well on the night, as Eastern finished at 52.0 percent (26 for 50) while Manhattanville ended up at 49.1 percent (26 for 53). The Valiants stayed in the game thanks to a defense that forced 23 turnovers and converted them into 34 points.
 
Manhattanville (3-5, 0-1 Freedom) will play its second and final conference game of the fall semester on Saturday, as the Valiants travel to Dallas, Pa., to take on Misericordia beginning at 3 p.m.