PURCHASE, N.Y. – A season-best .564 shooting percentage led the Manhattanville College men's basketball team to victory on Monday evening as the Valiants bested Skyline Conference opponent Purchase by a final of 91-62. The Valiants collect their first win of 2024 and stop a two-game conference skid, improving to 8-4 overall and 2-2 in the Skyline.
The team's best offensive performance of the season saw five total Valiants in double-figures and 10 different players record a basket. While four of the starting five surpassed the 10-point mark, it was
Xavier Kistoo-Miles (Spring Valley, N.Y./Spring Valley) leading the charge as the senior matched his career-high of 16 on a 7-for-8 shooting night in his 15 total minutes. Kistoo-Miles drilled two of his shots from beyond the arc and added four rebounds.
Kistoo-Miles' effort complimented the effort out of Manhattanville's starters nicely.
Tommy Lotito (Staten Island, N.Y./St. Peter's) and
Tony Hastings (Clarkstown, N.Y./Clarkstown South) each put up 13 points, while Andre Saint-Louis scored 12 and Eyan Giordano ended with 11. While
Jack Scanlon (Pearl River, NY/Pearl River High School) was held out of double-figures among his starting teammates, the junior guard was the Valiants' board leader with 10 rebounds alongside his six points.
Lotito added a team-high five assists and four steals alongside his four rebounds and his scoring effort. Saint-Louis, meanwhile, came down with seven caroms of his own as the Valiants dominated the glass to a 42-23 margin.
Setting the stage for the night to come, a Hastings old-fashioned three-point play followed by Saint-Louis' first three pointer of the night had the Valiants up 6-0 as the Panthers missed their first four shots. An 8-0 run capped by a Lotito layup from Andrew Melilo gave the home squad their first double-digit lead of the night, pulling ahead 16-5 with 13:03 left in the half. Purchase kept things within striking distance as they managed to bring their deficit back to single digits on multiple occasions as Chad Duke connected from deep with 1:58 left in the half to bring the Panthers within eight. It would be all Valiants for the remainder of the first as Manhattanville ended the half on a 10-2 run with threes by way of Hastings and Kistoo-Miles putting the Vals up 48-32 at the intermission.
After sinking 59 percent of their shots in the first, Manhattanville's offense remained hot as they shot .536 over the closing 20 minutes. The defense also took away many of Purchase's open looks as the Panthers finished 9-for-24 (.375), struggling to make a dent in the Valiant advantage. A Giordano jumper and Scanlon three out of the locker room swelled Manhattanville's lead to 21 as the Panthers never got closer than 14 points the rest of the way. After a Purchase surge cut the Valiant edge to 58-44 with 14:23 left in regulation, the Valiants scored nine of the next 11 to shoot back up back 21 at 67-46. That proved to be the final blow for Purchase as the Panthers were unable to make up much ground against a Valiant defense that showed up hungry. The shooters remained hot as Manhattanville ended the night with three-straight three-pointers, two from
Anthony Russo (Howard Beach, N.Y./Holy Cross) and one from
Benjamin Merritt (West Hartford, Conn./Kingswood Oxford), to cap off a 91-62 win.
Up Next
The Valiants' three-game week picks back up on Wednesday when Manhattanville heads to Mount Saint Vincent for a 1 p.m. clash.
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