PURCHASE, N.Y. – The Manhattanville College men's basketball team saw its two-game win streak come to an end on Tuesday night as an injury-hampered Valiant team fell 77-62 to the visiting SUNY Morrisville. The Valiants fall to 2-2 overall on the season heading into the Thanksgiving break.

Ryan Giordano (West Nyack, N.Y./Clarkstown South) had a strong performance as he would lead the Valiants all over the court. The graduate center scored a team-best 11 points while also leading the home squad in rebounds with eight and blocks with four. Giordano also added a steal in his 25 minutes on the floor.

Giordano was joined in double-figures by Tommy Lotito (Staten Island, N.Y./St. Peter's) who would finish with ten points across 16 minutes, leaving the game in the tail end of the first half after coming down hard on a pass attempt after driving to the basket. The Valiants already entered the contest on Tuesday without leading scorer Andrew Saint-Louis (Norwalk, Conn./Notre Dame Fairfield) and will now hope the reigning Skyline Conference Player of the Year will not be sidelined for an extended period of time.

Andrew Melillo (Staten Island, N.Y./Monsignor Farrell) rounded out the team's top scorers as the freshman finished with a season-high eight points pull pulling down two rebounds and dishing out an assist.

In his team-leading 31 minutes on the floor, Tony Hastings (Clarkstown, N.Y./Clarkstown South) finished second to Giordano in rebounds with four while scoring five points, leading the Valiants with three steals and three assists alongside a blocked shot.

A close battle across the opening 13 minutes, the Mustangs began to pull away on the back of shots from beyond the arc. Morrisville went 6-for-13 on three point attempts in the first half while the Valiants were just 1-of-8 from deep. While Manhattanville's .462 field goal clip in the first 20 minutes was better than Morrisville's .432 success rate, the deep ball allowed the Mustangs to take a 12 point lead at the half.

After Shykell Brown and Daniel Marinaccio (Staten Island, N.Y./St. Joseph By The Sea) traded three pointers to open up the night's scoring, Morrisville went on a 9-3 run to go up 12-6 through the opening five minutes. The Mustangs remained in control of the lead until the 9:47 mark when the Valiants took their first lead of the night as part of a 10-0 run that capped off with a Benjamin Merritt (West Hartford, Conn./Kingswood Oxford) basket to go up 20-15. The Mustangs responded with the next nine points and would lead for the rest of the night. Morrisville outscored the Valiants 29-12 over the final nine minutes of the half to take a 44-32 advantage into the locker room.

While the Mustangs cooled off from deep in the second half, the Valiants were unable to mount a comeback down a number of their top offensive weapons. After Morrisville's Jakhi Lucas hit a pair of free throws to open up the half, the Valiants would be unable to get closer than 12 points. A Hastings three narrowed the deficit to 53-41 with 14 minutes to go before the Mustangs scored seven straight to go up 60-41. Morrisville's advantage peaked at a 20-point lead as Chad Vickers hit a pair of shots at the free throw line. The Valiants scored the final five points across the closing 1:13 but would ultimately fall in by a 77-62 final.

Up Next
The Valiants return to action after the holiday on Monday, traveling to SUNY Delhi at 6 p.m.

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