PURCHASE, N.Y. – Trinity (Conn.) College scored the first 18 points of the night and never looked back as the Bantams defeated host Manhattanville College, 75-60, in non-conference men's basketball action on Tuesday night at Kennedy Gymnasium.
Trinity (10-2), which won its eighth straight game with the victory, was led by Jaquann Starks with a team-best 18 points. Ed Ogundeko was the only other Bantam in double figures with 11 points on 5-of-7 shooting from the field. Trinity as a team finished 25 for 53 (47.2 percent) from the floor in the win.
Junior
Anthony Maestre (Bronx, N.Y./Mount St. Michael Academy) netted a game-high 19 points and classmate
Juan Camacho (Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic/New Horizons) recorded 11 points and a team-best seven rebounds for Manhattanville (4-8), but it wasn't enough for a team that shot just 30.5 percent (18 for 59) from the field on the evening.
If not for an extremely slow start, Manhattanville may have been able to hang with the Bantams on Tuesday. However, the Valiants could not erase an ugly opening 10 minutes in which the home team missed 12 of its first 13 field goal attempts, misfired on all four free throws and turned the ball over four times. Trinity, meanwhile, sunk 10 of its first 15 shots in jumping out to a 22-2 lead with 10:22 to go in the first half. Seven different players scored for the Bantams during the opening stretch, led by Starks with five points and four from both Ogundeko and George Papadeas.
Going into halftime down 18 at 36-18, Manhattanville showed some heart in the second half, going on a 14-3 run midway through the stanza to whittle a 20-point lead down to single digits at 50-41. Six different Valiants scored during the run, which was completed by a Camacho put back with 7:15 on the clock. While the home team could not get any closer the rest of the way, the squad showed that they could stay with the Bantams for most of the night.
The Valiants did do some good things defensively on the evening, forcing 22 Bantam turnovers. Maestre helped out with a game-high three steals while both senior
Connor Quigley (Pelham, N.Y./Pelham Memorial) and junior
Andrew Winter (Queens, N.Y./St. Francis Prep) had a pair of thefts each.
Manhattanville will continue its four-game homestand on Saturday, when the Valiants host John Jay at 7 p.m. at Kennedy Gym.
