Box Score CENTER VALLEY, Pa. – Fourth-seeded Manhattanville had four players in double figures and had its five starters combine for 63 points, but the Valiant bench was outscored 32-5 by top-seeded DeSales as the Valiants had their 2013-14 season come to a close with a 77-68 loss to the Bulldogs in the Freedom Conference Tournament semifinals, held on Wednesday night at Billera Hall.
Manhattanville (11-15) has its season come to a close with the loss, while DeSales (17-9) advances to Saturday's Freedom Conference championship game, where the Bulldogs will host second-seeded Misericordia. The Cougars took down third-seeded FDU-Florham, 80-74, in Wednesday's other semifinal.
Production was not lacking from Manhattanville's starters on Wednesday. Senior
Colin Campbell (Miami, Fla./LaSalle) had a solid game with 16 points on 7-of-11 shooting and a game-high eight assists, followed by sophomore
Juan Camacho (Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic/New Horizons) with 15 points. Senior
Jack Bramswig (Pleasantville, N.Y./Pleasantville) added one more double-double to his stellar Valiant resume with 14 points and 10 rebounds, while sophomore
Anthony Maestre (Bronx, N.Y./Mount St. Michael Academy) also added 14 points of his own.
The offense was much more spread out for DeSales, although the game high went to Kyle Hash off the bench with 25 points on 8-of-14 shooting. Mike Coleman added 15 points and Travis Bryan chipped in eight points and nine rebounds for the Bulldogs as well.
Manhattanville started off the night well, as a Maestre jumper on the opening possession gave the visitors an early lead and the Valiants managed to maintain that advantage through the first six minutes. Despite three ties, the Valiants did not cede the lead until a transition layup by Paul Pammer gave DeSales a 22-20 lead with 8:54 left in the opening half.
The lead went back and forth later in the half until the Bulldogs scored eight straight points to take a 30-24 lead. Manhattanville got back within two at the break thanks to a Campbell three-point play and coast-to-coast layup that made it a 32-30 game.
DeSales took control of the game for the first time thanks to an 18-7 run out of the locker room, which put the home team ahead 50-37 with 11:36 remaining. The Valiants got back within six points with 7:27 remaining on a pair of Maestre free throws, but the Bulldogs came back with a Bryan bucket and a Coleman layup to get the lead quickly back up to 10.
The Valiants got within eight points on four occasions over the final two minutes, but the Bulldogs hit nine of their 10 free throw attempts over the final 84 seconds to secure the win.
Manhattanville did not shoot poorly on the night, connecting on 28 of 59 shots (47.5 percent) from the field, but went just 5 of 17 (29.4 percent) from long range. DeSales shot 50.0 percent (26 of 52) from the field and also went a stellar 21 of 23 (91.3 percent) from the line in the win.
The game is the final one in the collegiate careers of Campbell and Bramswig, who will leave behind a solid core that will be back to challenge for a Freedom Conference championship again in 2014-15.
