Down 25-22 with 8:28 to go in the first half, the Manhattanville defense stiffened to hold the Mariners to just seven points the rest of the period and give the hosts a 34-32 lead at the break. Early in the second, the Valiants added some offense to their stifling defense, scoring 12 of the period’s first 15 points to go up 46-35 and they would not look back.
The Valiants shot 59.3% from the floor in the second half, outscoring Merchant Marine 54-37 and building their first 20-point lead with 4:09 to go. The best free throw shooting team in the Skyline Conference, Manhattanville also connected on 17-of-20 foul shots in the second 20 minutes and out-rebounded the Mariners 18-10.
“I thought it [second half] was easily one of our best halves of the season,” Head Coach Pat Scanlon said. “We did a good job of fighting them, getting the lead at halftime, and we came out strong in the first five minutes of the second half, something we’ve been doing really well lately.”
Chisolm scored 13 of his game-high 21 points in the second half and had a superior all-around night, adding a career-high 10 rebounds, four offensive, along with six assists and four steals. The junior had five assists and three steals in the second half.
“Donte stepped up and was huge, it’s one of the best games he’s played since he’s been here.” Scanlon said. “He’s played a lot of minutes this year and for him to be able to play like that in the second half says a lot. He’s emerged as a leader on this team and I think he’s one of the best players in the region.”
Overshadowed a bit by Chisolm was the big all-around night senior John DiBetta put together. DiBetta not only extended his made free throw streak to 22 in a row, going 6-for-6, but chipped in 10 points, seven rebounds (four offensive) and four assists. The senior also passed Al Viafore early in the second half to move into 15th all-time in scoring with 1,096 points.
“John was big for us in the first half,” Scanlon said. “He was going to the basket hard and getting to the free throw line when the rest of the team was a little passive. And you can just see the urgency for him, he knows this is it and I expect him to play really well the rest of the season.”
With the win, the Valiants at the very least stayed one game behind league-leading Stevens who enters tonight’s action at 11-2. The Ducks had a road game at Saint Joseph’s (L.I.) tonight that had not yet gone final at the time of this publication. The 11-3 Valiants have two games remaining in the regular season as they prepare for another run in the league tournament, set to begin February 20.
Brian Kelly led Merchant Marine (13-9, 8-5 Skyline) with 21 points on 10-of-13 shooting. Pat Grace was the only other Mariner in double-figures, knocking down five three-pointers to finish with 19 points. Merchant Marine was out-rebounded 34-27 for the game and the Valiants forced 20 Mariner turnovers.
Cody Moffett and Brian Fink each added 14 points for the Valiants who got 20 points from their bench.
Manhattanville’s next game is their final scheduled road game of the year, Saturday afternoon at 1:00 p.m. at Farmingdale State. The defending league champion Rams have fallen on hard times since losing their first conference game of the season to the Valiants on January 20. Since that time, Farmingdale is 3-3 but the Rams will no doubt be looking for revenge Saturday.
The Valiants (18-5, 11-3 Skyline) close out the regular season Wednesday, February 14 at 8:00 p.m. against Centenary (N.J.) at Kennedy Gym. The four Manhattanville seniors, DiBetta, Jovan Kandic (, Ben Shapiro and William Garner will be honored before that game.