“We played really hard tonight,” Head Coach Pat Scanlon said. “They’re a really good team, an NCAA Tournament caliber team, and this game is going to help us get a lot better.”
The Royals, who won the Freedom Conference Championship in 2005-06 and did advance to the NCAA Tournament, were the preseason pick to win the conference again this season, their last one in the league. Next season, when the Valiants move into the Freedom, Scranton will depart for the newly-formed Landmark Conference.
“They were very physical and play a different level of basketball from what we’re used to,” Scanlon said. “It was great for us to compete well with a team like this.”
The Valiants held the lead at halftime, 30-28, and were up four points with 11:19 to go in the second half. But Scranton scored 16 of the next 18 points to build a double-digit lead and never looked back, not allowing Manhattanville within seven points over the final 7:13.
Manhattanville was playing without captain and leading scorer John DiBetta who missed the game with an injury. In his stead, junior Donte Chisolm picked up the scoring slack, scoring 19 points in 37 minutes of action. Chisolm knocked down a pair of three-pointers and added four rebounds, four assists and three steals to his line but also contributed five of the Valiants’ 21 turnovers on the night.
“We turned the ball over way too much and they caught fire from three in the second half and we didn’t do a good job adjusting to that,” Scanlon said.
The Royals knocked down 9-of-18 triples over the final 20 minutes, finishing the night 11-of-27 (40.7%) from long distance. Ryan Fitzpatrick went 3-of-6 from beyond the arc and finished with 21 points, while Paul Biagioli drained four three-pointers and scored 16 points.
For the second straight night, the Valiants struggled from three-point range, making 5-of-19 triples Wednesday after hitting just 5-of-23 from beyond the arc in Tuesday’s win over Clarke. Cody Moffett did his damage from inside the arc, hitting 6-of-9 field goals and finishing with a 14-point, 10-rebound double-double. The junior picked up five offensive boards and added two assists and two steals before fouling out with less than one minute remaining.
Sophomore big man Justin Morris was the only other Valiant to finish in double-figures, dropping in 15 points and pulling down six rebounds. Eduardo Huezo, pressed into the starting lineup for the first time this year because of DiBetta’s injury, played 30 minutes and finished with six points, four rebounds and three steals.
Scranton’s Randy Arnold was the third Royal in double-figures, scoring 14 points on 10-of-10 shooting from the foul line, while Tom Bicknell corralled a game-high 17 rebounds. Scranton (8-2) won despite turning the ball over 21 times but did out-rebound the Valiants 41-32 including 15 offensive boards.
Manhattanville will return back from Las Vegas Friday after going 1-1 at the Adidas Desert Shootout, beating Clarke 68-61 Tuesday night in the semifinal round.
“This trip was a great experience and a great chance for us to get to know each other a little better,” Scanlon said. “We know where we’re at as a team, we’ve got a good record at this point despite not playing as well as we’re capable, and we now know the level we have to get to in order to achieve our goals.”
Manhattanville (8-2) lost for the first time since November 17 and will have the holidays off to rest for a big month of January. The Valiants will host a pair of non-conference games the first week of 2007, taking on Rutgers-Newark January 3 at 6:00 p.m. before squaring off with William Paterson January 6 at 2:00 p.m.