PURCHASE, N.Y. – Junior
Juan Camacho (Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic/New Horizons) hit 12-of-16 shots from the field on the way to a game-high 27 points, but King's (Pa.) College took the lead late and then hit all its free throws to keep the Manhattanville College men's basketball team at bay in the Monarchs' 78-72 win over the Valiants on Saturday afternoon at Kennedy Gymnasium.
King's (10-11, 5-5 Freedom) moves into a three-way tie for the fourth and final postseason berth with the win, while Manhattanville (6-15, 2-8 Freedom) remains in seventh place in the Freedom Conference standings.
Camacho played a big role in Manhattanville's second-half push, scoring 21 of his game-high 27 points in the second half. The junior hit nine of his 11 shots in the final 20 minutes, and also added five rebounds and a game-high four steals for the Valiants. Classmate
Andrew Winter (Queens, N.Y./St. Francis Prep) also reached double figures with 12 points on 5-of-9 shooting and dished out a game-high five assists.
John Fazzini led four Monarchs in double figures with 22 points on 7-of-11 shooting, followed by Dan Rutecki with 13 points and eight boards. Tim O'Shea also chipped in 10 points and eight rebounds as well for the visitors.
Manhattanville controlled play for much of the first half, holding a lead for the majority of the frame and keeping the Monarchs off balance. The Valiants led by as many as six points on five separate occasions, and eventually built up a game-high seven-point edge following a three from freshman
Timmy McCauley (Cortlandt Manor, N.Y./Walter Panas) that put the home team up 34-27 with 3:22 left in the half.
Nine straight King's points gave the visitors a lead in the final minute of the half before Camacho put home a layup to even the score at 36 after 20 minutes. Winter led the Valiants with seven points at the break as part of a well-balanced offense that saw eight different players score a bucket. Both teams shot exactly 44.8 percent (13 of 29) from the field in the first half, with the Valiants draining one more three-pointer and the Monarchs hitting one more free throw.
King's turned on the jets coming out of the locker room, scoring 12 straight points to suddenly take a 48-36 lead with 4:17 gone by in the second half. But the Valiants battled all the way back, using a subsequent 17-4 run to regain the lead on a jumper from junior
Darius Christmas (Hackensack, N.J./Paramus Catholic) with 10:55 remaining. Camacho had six points and Winter added five during the run.
The teams traded the lead seven times over the next three minutes, with Manhattanville taking the lead again at 60-59 on a Camacho bucket with 8:42 remaining. But the momentum died for the home team soon after, as the Valiants missed five of their next six shots and turned the ball over four times to give the Monarchs a chance to pull away.
King's had a five-point lead entering the final minute and the Valiants were forced to foul, looking to extend the game. Camacho did all he could to keep the Valiants in the contest by hitting a pair of threes and a layup, but the Monarchs went 10-for-10 from the charity stripe to keep their team ahead for good, led by a perfect 6-of-6 effort from Fazzini.
Manhattanville finished the game with the better shooting percentage, hitting 28 of 56 shots (50.0 percent) from the field compared to 27-of-55 (49.1 percent) for King's, but the visitors got to the line 15 more times and shot 21-of-27 (77.8 percent) from the stripe to secure the win.
The Valiants will play three of their final four games of the season on the road, beginning with a Wednesday night matchup at FDU-Florham beginning at 8 p.m.
