SCHENECTADY, N.Y. – The Manhattanville University men's basketball team dropped its opening contest in the 2025 Sig Makofski Invitational on Saturday evening, falling 88-66 to host Union College. The loss drops the Valiants below .500 for the first time on the season at 2-3 overall and sends Manhattanville into the tournament's consolation game tomorrow afternoon against Sage College.

Union shot lights-out all contest long, posting a .608 clip from the floor and a .636 (14-for-22) rate from deep. It was the best shooting performances by a team against the Valiants since Scranton shot 66 percent from the floor against Manhattanville in 2018 and FDU-Florham's .647 clip from three-point land in 2017.

Isiah Middleton (Miami, Fla./Westminster Christian) led the Valiants with 20 points and eight rebounds, shooting 9-of-12 from the floor. It was the third time this season Middleton scored 20 or more points as he stands second on the team with 18.0 points per game.

Chris Robinson (Bedford-Stuyvesant, N.Y./Westminster School) followed suit with 15 points, two shy of his season high, on seven field goals, while Manhattanville's leading scorer on the year Andrew Saint-Louis (Norwalk, Conn./Notre Dame Fairfield) added 12 on four short range shots and a 4-for-4 effort at the free throw line. Saint-Louis has reached double-figures offensively in all five games to start his graduate season, averaging an even 20.0 points per game.

John Ranaghan (Pearl River, N.Y./Pearl River) came down with five rebounds to tail Middleton, while the duo of Robinson and Antonio Del Vescovo (Mount Olive, N.J./Mount Olive) added four apiece. Saint-Louis added four assists and three steals to his stat line, the latter matched by Robinson, while Middleton accounted for the Valiants' lone block of the affair.

The Valiant defense could do little to contain Union's offense in the first half as the Garnet Chargers shot 64 percent from the field and 70 percent beyond the arc over the opening 20 minutes to build out a sizeable lead. The home team opened with a layup on its opening possession before a Robinson three and Saint-Louis jumper put the Valiants in front. The Garnet Chargers then went on a 9-0 run to go up 11-5, a lead that remained in tact until the Valiants tied it up at 13-all on a Robinson layup. Union retook the lead with back-to-back threes, the last points by either team for nearly three minutes.

A pair of Jack Maloney (Tappan, N.Y./Tappan Zee) free throws and a Robinson layup broke the cold spell and put the Valiants back within a single score at 19-17 with ten minutes left in the half. The rest of the first was all Union, however, as the Garnet Chargers went on a prolonged 25-12 run over the final 9:15 to take the 44-29 lead into the half. Union led by as many as 19, but the Valiants hit the final two buckets of the half on a jumper by Maloney and buzzer-beating tip-in from Middleton to chip into the deficit.

Union pushed the lead up to 20 with 15:47 left the go in regulation, opening the half on an 11-6 run. Manhattanville used a 5-0 run on a Middleton free throw, Maloney layup and Saint-Louis floater to pull within 15 at a 58-43 deficit with 13 minutes remaining, but that was as close as the Valiants would get. The Garnet Chargers were up by 20 again two minutes later and were able to close out the final ten minutes with the 88-66 win.

Up Next
Manhattanville takes on Sage tomorrow at 2 p.m. to open Day Two of the Sig Makofski Invitational with the tournament's consolation game.

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