PURCHASE, N.Y. - A big offensive night along with a huge rally helped spark the Manhattanville College men's basketball team to a 96-88 victory over Union College on Tuesday night at Kennedy Gymnasium.

For Manhattanville (2-1), senior Juan Camacho (Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic/New Horizons) had a huge game, recording his third career double-double with a career-high 33 points and 11 rebounds to lead the Valiants. Senior guard Anthony Maestre (Bronx, N.Y./Mount St. Michael Academy) recorded his 14th career 20-plus-point game with 22 and sophomore forward Alex Tuci (New Rochelle, N.Y./New Rochelle) tied a career-high for the second straight game with 14 points. The top three scorers for the Valiants combined for 36 of Manhattanville's 54 second-half points as they pulled away for the win.

"Union is a terrific team," commented head coach Pat Scanlon on the Valiants win over the Dutchmen. "We knew coming in we were going to have our hands full, but our guys really rose to the occasion and showed a lot of toughness. We had a lot of different guys step up."

Things did not start off as planned for the Valiants. Trailing 15-12 to Union, the Dutchmen exploded offensively, going on a 12-2 run to extend their lead. Manhattanville trailed by as many as 13 points but the Valiantswould rally, as the host squad chipped away at the lead by outscoring the visitors 28-16 to go into the locker room trailing 43-42.

Coming into the game, the Valiants had been the one with the hot starts, having outscored their opponents 94-73 in the first 20 minutes. However, tonight the roles were reversed.

"I was really proud of the guys," stated Scanlon. "We came out with some energy and excitement with it being the first home game, and the guys were enthusiastic. We were probably a little bit too aggressive and they capitalized on it but I thought our guys showed tremendous composure."

To start the second half it was all Valiants as Manhattanville opened up the half with junior Charles Nardone (Stony Point, N.Y./North Rockland) completing a three-point play after drawing a foul on Union senior Ryan Whelpley and making the free throw to give Manhattanville its first lead since it was 6-5 three minutes into the game.

The Valiants would go on a run of their own outscoring the Dutchmen 11-3 in the first three minutes of the second half.

"We stuck together as a team," said Camacho. "We had faith that we knew we could play way better than what we did in the first half and we were just aggressive and played as a team. Everything just came together."

Union would cut into the lead and draw as close as five after a Wade McNamara three-pointer. However, Manhattanville responded with a three of its own by freshman Javin Barton (Queens, N.Y./St. Mary's) to put the Valiants up 59-51.

The momentum along with the game was firmly put in Manhattanville's favor midway through the second half. Following a Camacho three-pointer, Tuci intercepted a pass on defense and slammed it home to the delight of the Manhattanville faithful.The Valiants went on to outscore the Dutchmen 39-23 in an 11-minute span to take a comfortable lead.

"We learned some lessons from the past weekend," recalled Scanlon. "Really what happened was Juan, Anthony [Maestre], Andrew [Winter] and Dom [Arena], who didn't have a great first half, just led our team. They got composed at halftime and they came out and got the job done."

Tonight's 96-88 win marked the most points scored overall since the Valiants netted 115 in 2011 in a double-overtime win against King's (Pa.) College and was the most points scored in regulation since a 103-81 victory over Hunter in November 2007.

"We just stayed aggressive," added Camacho. "We tried to get to the rim and not settle for bad shots."

Union (1-1) was led by senior William Hython, who recorded 25 points with 18 of them coming in the first 20 minutes, and junior Deshon Burgess added 20 points in the loss. Whelpley recorded a game-high 12 rebounds to lead the Dutchmen.

"It's a tremendous win over a really good basketball team that just beat Hartwick, who is one of the best teams the country," stated Scanlon. "For us to get this win shows us what we are capable of and, like I said to the guys in the locker room, we still have a lot of room for improvement from a consistency stand point, especially defensively. But it gives us an idea of what we are capable of."

Manhattanville will be back in action on Friday when the Valiants host Southern Virginia University in the opening round of the AJ Buchanan Classic at Kennedy Gymnasium with tip-off set to start at 8 p.m.

"We got to stick together and keep it going," concluded Camacho. "We earned some confidence and we have to keep it going through the weekend and these next two weeks."