BRONXVILLE, N.Y. – The Manhattanville University men's basketball season came to a close on Wednesday night as the sixth-seeded Valiants were defeated by No. 3 Sarah Lawrence College, 59-44. The Valiants end the season with a 13-13 overall record, making their return to the postseason for the first time since 2024.

After the teams met a week ago with the Valiants picking up the win after holding the Gryphons to their lowest point total in conference play, Sarah Lawrence repaid the favor by holding Manhattanville to a season-low 44 points. It was the fewest points scored by the Valiants since Nov. 19 2022 when Manhattanville was held to 43 against Trinity. As a team, the Valiants shot just .286, their second-lowest mark of the season (.262 vs NYU, Nov. 22).

Chris Robinson (Bedford-Stuyvesant, N.Y./Westminster School) was able to break through the Gryphon defense, scoring 21 points while shooting .500 from the field. The senior led all scorers across both teams, finishing his season with a team-high 366 points. It was the fifth time this season Robinson scored 20 or more points. Robinsons added three steals, two blocks and eight rebounds, leading Manhattanville in all three categories.

Andrew Saint-Louis (Norwalk, Conn./Notre Dame Fairfield) closed out his decorated career with an eight point, eight rebound performance, matching Robinson and Antonio Del Vescovo's (Mount Olive, N.J./Mount Olive) efforts off the boards to lead the team in the rebound department. The graduate student ends his time as a Valiant with 1,312 points, the 13^th most points in program history.

Defense told the story of the first half, with the Valiants shooting just .214 while the Gryphons sported a .290 clip. The teams also combined to go 3-of-21 from deep over the opening 20 minutes. Eamon Kelly opened the scoring for the Gryphons after the tip before the Valiants scored six straight with a pair of baskets from Robinson and a perfect trip to the line by Saint-Louis. After Sarah Lawrence responded with a Gabe Downes layup the next visit down the court, it would be three minutes before either team got back onto the scoreboard.

Andrew Kim snapped the cold spell with a three to put Sarah Lawrence up 7-6 with 13:11 left in the half. Robinson provided another pair of unanswered baskets, but it would be more than two minutes between both shots as the clock dipped below ten minutes to go. Manhattanville's lead maxed out at four following Carlos Urena's (Corona, N.Y./Monsignor McClancy) three-pointer with 8:20 to go, but the Gryphons tied things up at 18-18 with 2:52 remaining. The Gryphons ended the half on a 6-0 run to take a 22-18 lead into the break.
The shooting efforts improved in the second half for both sides, but the Valiants still could not make the deep ball fall, shooting 1-of-10 from beyond the arc. The Gryphons shot 47 percent to close out the game as Manhattanville simply could not match the pace. A layup and three-pointer by Chris Dougherty got the new period started for Sarah Lawrence, pushing the lead to nine.

The Valiants fought back to make it a one possession game with a 7-0 run as Saint-Louis hit a jumper, Daniel Marinaccio (Staten Island, N.Y./St. Joseph By The Sea) drilled a three-pointer and Robinson rolled in a floater to cut the Gryphon advantage down to 29-27 with 16:32 to go. Manhattanville went on to match Sarah Lawrence shot-for-shot until the 14:11 mark, when the Gryphons began to pull away with an 8-2 run. Manhattanville never got back within six points for the remainder of the game as Sarah Lawrence pushed the lead up to double digits with ten minutes to go. Manhattanville's last effort came off Robinson's final basket of the night to make the score 50-44 with 2:33 to go, but the Valiants missed their final three shots as the Gryphons closed with nine unanswered points to advance to the Skyline Semifinals on Friday at second-seeded Farmingdale.

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