PURCHASE, N.Y. – The Manhattanville College men's basketball team, seeded third in the Skyline Conference tournament, hosted sixth-seeded Sarah Lawrence College at Kennedy Gymnasium tonight, Tuesday, Feb. 25. The Valiants entered the night owning the 2-0 advantage over the Gryphons in the regular-season series, including a 15-point win just three days earlier, but it was the road squad that picked up the 75-66 win to advance to the semifinal round thanks to a strong second half.
 
Manhattanville (16-10, 11-5 Skyline) and the Gryphons (12-14, 7-9 Skyline) went back and forth throughout the first 20 minutes, which each squad making its own short batch of runs to hold temporary leads. It was just prior to the midway point of the second half when the Valiants broke the game open at the time thanks to a 22-11 run over the first 12:18 and took a 54-42 lead. Junior Mike Granda (Monroe Township, N.J./St. Joseph) scored seven points on the run, while senior JoJo Cobbs (Elmsford, N.Y./Briarcliff) and sophomore Jake Dunn (Staten Island, N.Y./Monsignor Farrell) each chipped in six. Unfortunately, from the point forward Sarah Lawrence caught fire and finished the game on a 33-12 run en route to the quarterfinal win.
 
For the Valiants, Dunn led the offensive charge with a team-high 20 points, including a 4-of-7 performance from beyond the arc. He added five boards, a block and an assist. Granda and Cobbs each chipped in 15 points as well. Cobbs led the Valiants in rebounds (6) and led all players on the night with a career-high-tying three blocks in his final game at Manhattanville. He finishes his career with 1,188 career points which ranks 19th all-time in Valiants' program history. Omar Jamaleddine led the way for Sarah Lawrence, finishing with 32 points, 14 rebounds, four assists, two blocks and two steals.
 
Highlights:

• Manhattanville, under the guidance of first-year head coach Chris Alesi, finished the season with 16 wins, its most since 2008-09. This was also the first playoff berth for the Valiants since 2013-14.
• Granda finished the season with a team-high 14.7 points per game, while Cobbs (13.9) and Dunn (11.5) also averaged double-figures. Granda finished the season with a program-record 86 made three-pointers as well, 10 more than the previous mark set back in 1994-95.
• Rookie Khari Taylor (Bronx, N.Y./St. Raymond) – who battled foul trouble all night long tonight – ended the season with a team-high 5.7 rebounds per game, with Cobbs (5.4) just behind him.
• The Valiants finished just five made three-pointers shy of tying the single-season record of 225, set back 2004-05.