NEW YORK, N.Y. – Opening the season on the road against a ranked opponent, the Manhattanville College men's basketball team was bested by No. 9 NYU on Wednesday night, 77-60. The Valiants wil begin the season 0-1 following their first matchup against the Violets since 2014.

Making his Manhattanville debut, Tony Hastings (Clarkstown, N.Y./Clarkstown South) led the offense with 14 points, doing most of his damage from deep as he sank four three pointers. Andrew Saint-Louis (Norwalk, Conn./Notre Dame Fairfield) and Ryan Giordano (West Nyack, N.Y./Clarkstown South) joined the grad student in double figures, scoring 12 and 10 points respectively.

While limited to a comparatively low seven points by his standards, Tommy Lotito (Staten Island, N.Y./St. Peter's) began his follow up campaign to last season's Skyline Conference Player of the Year effort with a team-high seven rebounds. He added a pair of assists and a steal in his season-opener.

Manhattanville held tight with the ninth-ranked team in the nation through the first half, shooting an identical .364 clip from both the field and from beyond the arc. The Violets opened the contest with the first basket of the night as Spencer Freedman hit a shot from deep to put NYU up 3-0. NYU's early lead would peak at five before the Valiants would claim their first lead of the affair after a three-pointer and layup by Xavier Kistoo-Miles (Spring Valley, N.Y./Spring Valley) put Manhattanville ahead 12-11 with 15:40 left in the half. Zay Freeney put the Violets back on top with a layup before the Valiants went on a 6-0 run to go up 18-13, their largest lead of the night. While NYU scored the next eight points, another three by Hastings evened the score up at 21-21 with 8:47 to play in the half. The Valiants would have the largest lead on either side across the final minutes up by four but NYU matched the Vals shot for shot down the stretch. A layup by Jack Scanlon (Pearl River, NY/Pearl River High School) and pair of free throws put the Valiants up by one with 1:43 remaining, but Freedman drained a three-ball at the buzzer for NYU to put NYU up 33-31 at the half.

The Violets shot 50 percent from the floor in the second half as the Valiants struggled to keep pace over the final 20 minutes. Manhattanville hit just three baskets across the first ten minutes of the half with NYU going on a 17-4 run across the first 8:31 of the second. NYU's lead never dipped back below 10m with the lead reaching as high as 20 with under a minute to play. Benjamin Merritt (West Hartford, Conn./Kingswood Oxford) hit the final basket of the game with a three pointer with 37 seconds left, bringing the final score to 77-60.

Up Next
The Valiants make their home debut on Sunday, hosting Neumann at 2:30 p.m.

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