PURCHASE, N.Y. – The Manhattanville College men's basketball team staged a furious second-half comeback to whittle a 20-point halftime deficit down to just one on three occasions, but the Valiants' rally came up just short in a 75-72 MAC Freedom defeat at Eastern University on Saturday afternoon at Eagles Gym.
 
Senior Alex Tuci (New Rochelle, N.Y./New Rochelle) led the Valiant charge with 19 second-half points, including the 1,000th point of his career. The forward became the 26th player in program history to reach quadruple digits with his 15th point of the game, and finished the day in 25th place on the school's all-time scoring list.
 
Freshman Sean Smith (Yonkers, N.Y./Sacred Heart) came off the bench to lead all scorers with 21 points while also adding nine rebounds for Manhattanville (7-10, 1-5 MAC Freedom). Tuci had his eighth double-double of the year by adding a game-high 12 rebounds to his 19 points, while senior Dom Arena (Bronx, N.Y./Cardinal Spellman) also filled up the stat sheet with 13 points, seven steals, seven assists and five rebounds for the Valiants.
 
The first half was not kind to the visitors, as Manhattanville shot 9-of-32 (28.1 percent) from the field and allowed Eastern (10-7, 5-1 MAC Freedom) to shoot 50.0 percent (18 of 36) from the field and a sizzling 9-of-16 from beyond the arc. As a result, the Valiants found themselves down 47-27 after 20 minutes of play.
 
The Eastern lead was 22 points at 53-31 early in the second stanza before Manhattanville made its first move, scoring 12 straight points to get within 10 points with 12:58 left. Smith (8) and Tuci (4) scored all 12 points for the Valiants during the run.
 
The Valiants still trailed by nine (63-54) with 8:53 remaining before a three from sophomore Cory Madden (Woodside, N.Y./Monsignor McClancy Memorial), a Tuci bucket and a Smith free throw brought the visitors within three at 63-60 with 5:58 left. Back-to-back Tuci layups decreased the deficit to one and it was still one after an Arena layup with 2:44 left, but the Valiants managed only one field goal the rest of the way.
 
Down by five with 1:49 to go, sophomore JoJo Cobbs (Elmsford, N.Y./Briarcliff) hit one free throw followed by a Tuci layup and a subsequent steal and two free throws from Arena, getting Manhattanville to within one at 73-72 with 25 seconds remaining. Although two Eastern free throws made it a three-point game, the Valiants still had two looks from long range to tie the score, but both shots did not find the mark and the visitors suffered the tough three-point loss.
 
Despite the loss, Manhattanville showed what it can do against one of the top teams in the MAC Freedom in a dominant second half. Over the final 20 minutes, the Valiants outscored Eastern 32-4 in the paint, recorded a 21-2 edge in points off turnovers, and out-rebounded the Eagles 24-17, including 11 offensive boards that led to 10 second-chance points.
 
The Valiants will look to get back on the winning track on Wednesday against FDU-Florham beginning at 6 p.m.