PURCHASE, N.Y. – Senior Anthony Maestre (Bronx, N.Y./Mount St. Michael Academy) went for a career-high 33 points in his final collegiate game, but it was not enough to send his team off with a win as the Manhattanville College men's basketball team dropped an 89-77 decision to Misericordia University in MAC Freedom action on Saturday afternoon at Kennedy Gymnasium.
 
Needing a win and a King's (Pa.) College win over Wilkes University to sneak into the conference tournament as the fourth seed, the Valiants got neither of those scenarios to go their way. King's fell to Wilkes, 83-77, meaning that a Valiant victory would not have been enough to make the postseason anyway.
 
Maestre went out with one of the best shooting days of his stellar career, hitting 13-of-16 shots from the field – including a perfect 6-of-6 from beyond the arc – on the way to his career-best 33 points, and he also added six assists and five rebounds. With his outburst, he moved into third place on the school's career scoring list with 1,632 points, in addition to finishing third in three-pointers and free throws, fifth in steals and eighth in assists.
 
Sophomore Alex Tuci (New Rochelle, N.Y./New Rochelle) contributed his sixth double-double of the season, netting 10 points and grabbing a game-high 10 boards. Freshman Willie Britton (Queens, N.Y./Monsignor McClancy) also chipped in with 12 points and senior Andrew Winter (Queens, N.Y./St. Francis Prep) added six points, six rebounds and three assists in his final game as a Valiant.
 
On the other end, Manhattanville had a ton of trouble containing James Hawk, who hit an amazing 13-of-14 shots from the floor on the way to 26 points to go with nine rebounds. He was joined in double figures by Jason Kenny and Griffin Sponaugle with 15 points apiece, and D.J. Marlow with 10 off the bench.
 
Maestre started the game off with a three-pointer 55 seconds in and was the Valiants' key contributor in the opening half, scoring 18 points as the home team lead for most of the opening stanza. Manhattanville led by six (21-15) with 9:02 to go in the half and then weathered a 13-2 Cougar run with an extended 17-8 run of its own to grab a 40-34 lead before an Erik Kerns bucket made it a 40-36 Valiant lead at the half.
 
After Winter started the half with a layup, Misericordia went to work offensively, hitting 10-of-14 shots during a 23-8 run that put the visitors ahead 59-50 with 11:30 remaining. After going scoreless in the first half, Sponaugle led the Cougars with 11 points during the run.
 
Manhattanville slowly chipped away at the deficit, getting back within one point after a Tuci three was followed by a Britton layup to make the score 71-70 with 5:27 left. But Marlow came back down the other end and hit a big three, and that was followed by another Sponaugle trey in transition to quickly extend the MU lead back to seven and help keep the Valiants at bay for the rest of the contest.
 
Thanks in large part to Hawk's shooting, Misericordia shot 52.5 percent (32 of 61) from the field and also hit on 35.7 percent (10 of 28) of its threes on the afternoon. Manhattanville shot 45.5 percent (30 of 66) overall and 40.0 percent (10 of 25) from downtown.
 
The loss ends Manhattanville's season at 13-12 (6-8 MAC Freedom), tying the Valiants for fifth place in the conference standings. It also makes the final game for Maestre, Winter and classmate Juan Camacho (Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic/New Horizons), who missed the last 11 games of the year due to injury.