PURCHASE, N.Y. – The Manhattanville University men's basketball team fought its way back from a first half deficit, but an explosive final five minutes by the visiting Western Connecticut State doomed the Valiants in a Tuesday night clash inside Kennedy. Following the 72-58 loss, Manhattanville opens the year 0-2, while the Wolves improve to 1-1.

John Ranaghan (Pearl River, N.Y./Pearl River) set a new career-high with 19 points, leading the Manhattanville offense. The sophomore connected on seven field goals, four from beyond the arc. Ranaghan added four rebounds, a pair of assists and a steal to his outing.

Emmanuel Udeagha (Yonkers, N.Y./Aduvie International School) compliment Ranaghan's offensive output with 11 points while leading the Valiants' effort off the glass with seven rebounds. The effort came in an abbreviated 19 minute outing before the junior center found himself in foul trouble.

Andrew Melillo (Staten Island, N.Y./Monsignor Farrell) capped off the leading scorers with a nine-point outing, playing 37 total minutes on the floor. Melillo joined Ranaghan and Jack Scanlon (Pearl River, NY/Pearl River High School) with four rebounds in the effort.

The Wolves opened the night with back-to-back threes from CJ Riley, with the early lead for the visitors peaking at a seven-point advantage through the opening four minutes. Ranaghan began his night with the Valiants' first field goal, a three ball that kicked off a 15-2 run with deep balls by Melillo and Anthony Russo (Howard Beach, N.Y./Holy Cross) to go up 16-10 with 12 minutes to play in the half.

A Ranaghan jumper spotted the home side its largest lead of the night, up 18-11, before the Wolves mounted their first large run of the evening. Nick Boyce single-handedly scored the next eight points to give WestConn the lead once again. It was the first of seven lead changes in the ensuing four minutes, with the Wolves taking a 26-25 lead off a Riley jumper. WestConn scored nine straight points to force a Valiant timeout with 2:43 left in the half.

Trailing 33-25, Neven Noor (Pomona, N.Y./Albertus Magnus) drew a foul on a three-point try on the first play out of the break, draining all three free throws. That was the start of an eight-point Valiant run that was appropriately ended with Noor connecting from deep to tie things up at 33-33. Boyce delivered one last basket before the half, giving the Wolves a narrow two-point lead through 20.

A pair of opening baskets from Udeagha gave the Valiants the lead to begin the second half. After Jourdan Belcher hit a pair of free throws to tie the score at 37-37 with 18 minutes remaining, both offenses went cold as it would take four more minutes before another point went on the board. The Wovles were the beneficiaries, snapping the drought with a pair of Cameron Gallon hits from the charity stripe. After Carlos Urena (Corona, N.Y./Monsignor McClancy) pulled the Vals back even, Gallon struck again with a layup that began a 14-6 WestConn run, putting the Wolves up 53-45 with nine minutes to play.

The Valiants fought back, scoring 11 of the following 14 points to even things up once again off a Benjamin Merritt (West Hartford, Conn./Kingswood Oxford) three pointer with five minutes to go. However, WestConn stood right back up after watching the lead disappear by scoring 16 of the final 18 points in the closing minutes to head home to Danbury winners of a 72-58 final.

Up Next
Manhattanville heads to Morrisville over the weekend to compete at the SUNY Morrisville Tournament on Saturday and Sunday.  The Valiants open up tourney play against the Mighty Oaks of SUNY Environmental Science and Forestry at 7 p.m. 

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