PURCHASE, N.Y. – On the backs of 38 combined points from Tommy Lotito (Staten Island, N.Y./St. Peter's) and Andrew Saint-Louis (Norwalk, Conn./Notre Dame Fairfield), the second-seeded Manhattanville College men's basketball team defeated No. 7 Mount Saint Vincent on Tuesday evening, 69-66, to advance to the Skyline Conference Championship Semifinals. The Valiants improve to 20-6 overall with the win, the team's first 20-win season since 2006-07, and will be advancing past the tournament's opening round for a second straight season.

In what proved to be a defensive battle, neither team shot better than 39 percent from the field. In fact, the Valiants .344 shooting percentage was their third lowest of the season and their lowest mark in a win this year. Still, the win was all that mattered in the end, and the Valiants were able to grind one out even when the offense was not at its best.

Lotito led the charge with 21 points, his tenth game of the year with 20 or more. The senior was uncharacteristically quiet in the first half with just two points before erupting over the final 20 minutes, coming to life when needed the most to pick up the win. It was a similarly cold start for Saint-Louis, who finished the first half with three points before putting up 14 in the second. The sophomore drilled a team-high four shots from beyond the arc.

The rebound effort was led by Ryan Giordano (West Nyack, N.Y./Clarkstown South), who collected a career-high 12 boards. Jackson Leech (Chicago, Ill./Von Steuben) pulled down seven boards, while Xavier Kistoo-Miles (Spring Valley, N.Y./Spring Valley) finished with six.

Lotito would add four assists, while Giordano and Kistoo-Miles each added a pair of steals. Giordano would also contribute two of the team's four blocks with Jake Dunn (Staten Island, N.Y./Monsignor Farrell) adding the other pair.

In a touch-and-go opening 20, neither team would lead by more than four. The Dolphins struck first on an opening basket from Dillon Hod. After Lotito responded with the Valiants' opening basket, Hod hit two more layups to give Mount Saint Vincent a four-point lead. The Dolphins would stay in front for almost five minutes before a Giordano layup allowed the Valiants to pull even at 10-10 with 12:41 to play. An old-fashioned three-point play from Leech in the following trip down the floor gave the Valiants their first lead of the contest. Manhattanville would take their largest lead of the half at 10:17 following a Jack Scanlon (Pearl River, NY/Pearl River High School) three, pushing the Valiant lead up to 16-12. It would be short lived, as the Dolphins score seven unanswered points to go back in front off a Dan Porcic three pointer. After a minute and a half of scoreless play, the Valiants went on a 6-0 run, pulling back in front 22-19 as the clock dipped below four minutes. After trading leads one last time, Saint-Louis put the Valiants up 27-25 with the three pointer with 41 ticks left on the clock. Joshua Cabezudo drew a foul in the Dolphins' final trip down the court and nailed both free throws, sending the game into the half tied 27-27.

It would take better than two minutes into the second for either team to put up a basket before Hod broke the scoreless drought at 17:36. Neither offense was able to get into much of a rhythm until the 14:20 mark when Kistoo-Miles hit a three to put the Valiants up 32-31. The deep ball was the start of a 9-2 run, with all of the Valiant points coming from beyond the arc. Saint-Louis accounted for the other two deep balls to give the Valiants a five point advantage, the largest either team had seen on the night. The advantage climbed as high as seven before the Dolphins began clawing back. After a Cabezudo three-point play cut the Valiant lead all the way down to two, Manhattanville responded with another run, this time scoring eight unanswered to take the first double-digit lead of the night at 51-41 with 8:11 left in regulation. While Mount Saint Vincent continued to try a close the gap, the Valiants responded with timely baskets, ultimately going up 61-50 on a Saint-Louis jumper with 1:34 left to play.

With their season on the line, the Dolphins turned up the pressure, immediately responded down the floor with a Cabezudo three. While the Valiant lead held at nine with under a minute to go, the Dolphins went on an 8-1 run in a span of just 21 seconds. Lotito drilled a pair of much needed free throws to regain some sort of breathing room, but an Adrian Rraci three with 14 seconds to go made it a one point game. Lotito provided one of the biggest sequences for the Valiants all season, handling the inbound and weaving his way through a press defense while maintaining possession to force the Dolphins to send him to the line. The senior hit both of his free throws with one second to play as Dan Porcic's half court Hail Mary was off the mark as the Valiants lived to see another day.

Up Next
The No. 2 Valiants advance to the Skyline Semifinals on Thursday for a rematch of the 2022 Conference championship game. Manhattanville hosts No. 3 Yeshiva at 5 p.m. inside Kennedy Gymnasium. 

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