PURCHASE, N.Y. – It was all smiles inside Kennedy Gym on Saturday afternoon as the Manhattanville University men's basketball team closed out the regular season with a dominant 95-62 win over Mount Saint Vincent to celebrate Senior Day. The win pushes the Valiants up into the No. 6 seed for next week's Skyline Conference Championship Tournament, drawing an opening round matchup at third-seeded Sarah Lawrence after all the dust settled in the conference standings with the day's action.
The Valiants recognized the five senior members of the roster—
Chris Robinson (Bedford-Stuyvesant, N.Y./Westminster School),
Neven Noor (Pomona, N.Y./Albertus Magnus),
Cole Durocher (Putnam Valley, N.Y./Putnam Valley),
Antonio Del Vescovo (Mount Olive, N.J./Mount Olive) and
Daniel Marinaccio (Staten Island, N.Y./St. Joseph By The Sea)—as well as celebrating the achievements of grad student
Andrew Saint-Louis (Norwalk, Conn./Notre Dame Fairfield) and final year graduate assistant coach
Romello Ford in a pregame ceremony. Noor and Del Vescovo went on to be announced in the starting lineup for the first time in their collegiate careers, flanked by Saint-Louis, Robinson and Marinaccio to round out the starting five.
Manhattanville's 95 points was the most the team had scored since all the way back on Dec. 5, 2022 when the Valiants scored 102 against Hunter. The 33-point margin of victory was also the Valiants' second-largest win of the season behind Manhattanville's 84-48 win over Medgar Evers on Dec. 7 earlier this season.
Eleven different Valiants ended up on the scoresheet with four reaching double digits. Robinson shot 70 percent overall and went 2-of-3 from deep to lead Manhattanville with 19. Saint-Louis poured in another 13, doing almost half of his damage at the charity stripe with a 6-of-8 effort at the free throw line.
John Ranaghan (Pearl River, N.Y./Pearl River) was lethal coming off the bench, shooting 7-of-8 from the floor and a perfect 4-of-4 of three point tries for 18 total points.
Isiah Middleton (Miami, Fla./Westminster Christian) rounded out the leading scorers with 11.
Del Vescovo came down with a team-leading seven rebounds, while Saint-Louis and Ranaghan pulled down six caroms each. Saint-Louis was also the leading pilot of the offense with five assists.
Manhattanville shot 65 percent as a team in the first half, going 6-of-10 from deep as the Valiants erupted for 52 points across the opening 20 minutes. After trading opening baskets, a layup from Del Vescovo and a Robinson old-fashioned three-pointer put the Valiants in front. The Dolphins erased Manhattanville's four-point lead with ten straight points, taking their first lead at 17-11 with 11:43 left in the half.
The Valiants responded to the punch with eight of the next ten points to tie the game up at 19-19. After the Dolphins retook a 22-20 lead, Saint-Louis connected from deep to spot the Valiants the lead that would hold over the final 28 minutes. Saint-Louis' three opened a 14-2 run over a three-minute stretch that had the Valiants suddenly up by ten, 34-24. The Valiant lead reached 18 before the half horn as Manhattanville began lighting up from downtown with four-straight three-pointers to close out the first, leading 52-34.
The Valiant momentum hardly slowed after the break, opening the new half with five-straight points to push the lead up to 23. Manhattanville's advantage never fell below 20 points as the Valiants outscored the Dolphins 43-28. The lead reached 30 with 13:03 left to go on a
Carlos Urena (Corona, N.Y./Monsignor McClancy) three and peaked at 39 following a Marinaccio trey with 5:36 on the clock.
Up Next
The Valiants are back in the postseason for the first time since 2024 as the No. 6 seed for the Skyline Conference Championship Tournament. With the weather forecast for the start of the week disrupting practice dates, the first round has been shifted from Tuesday to Wednesday, when the Valiants will travel to Bronxville to meet third-seeded Sarah Lawrence at 7 p.m.
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