Throggs Neck, NY – Senior center Robert Benton (Montgomery, Ala./G.W. Carver) (Montgomery, AL/GW Carver), who played in his final home contest tonight as a member of the Privateers, scored 23 points but in the end his effort would not be enough to prevail over the Valiants of Manhattanville College who walked away with a 91-67 Skyline Conference victory Thursday night in Throggs Neck.

 

Maritime came out stale to start the first half, allowing the Valiants to quickly run up a 14 point lead just three minutes into the game, with the Privateers unable to put a point on the board. The Privateers would end up trailing by as much as 16 points, 24-8. However, as the Maritime faithful cheered them on, the Privateers fought back, surmounting a 21-6 run that would bring them to within one point with a little over five minutes left to play in the half. The Valiants answered back by going on another quick 12-4 run to put them up by nine going into the half.

 

The second half would end up playing out much differently than the first. Maritime made a slight run early on, cutting the deficit to five points, 56-51 with 12:52 left to play. At this point in the game, Manhattanville had an offensive explosion, led by sophomore guard Donte Chisolm (Mt. Vernon, NY) who was nearly perfect from the field. Chisolm would go onto score a game high 27 points, shooting 11-of-12 from the field. Before the Privateers knew it, they already trailed by 20 points and would go onto drop a 24 point game to the second best squad in the Skyline in their only meeting of the season.

 

Manhattanville had four finish in double figures, Chisolm with 27 points, junior John DiBetta (Valhalla, NY) scored 18, junior Cody Moffett (Brooklyn, NY) had 12 and freshman Justin Morris (West Haven, CT) finished with 10. Manhattanville out rebounded the Privateers 37 to 27 which contributed to 22 second chance points for “Mville” and only six for Maritime. They also contributed from 21 Privateer turnovers which turned into 28 points for the Valiants.

 

Freshman forward Timothy Dougherty (Fresh Meadows, NY/St. Francis Prep) was the only other Privateer to score in double figures, finishing with just 11 points and added four rebounds. Senior guard Marc Lashley (Queens, N.Y./Holy Cross) (Queens, NY/Holy Cross) scored nine points and grabbed five rebounds, while fellow senior Gerard Danzy (Monroeville, Ala./Hillcrest) (Monroeville, AL/Hillcrest) was held to just six points but provided six assists.

 

Tonight’s win puts Manhattanville into second place in the Skyline Conference with a record of 11-4, they improved to 17-8 overall. Maritime gave up their 11th conference game of the year, falling to 2-11 in the Skyline and 6-18 overall.

 

All that remains now is an away contest against Stevens Institute of Technology on Saturday, February 18th. When the final buzzer sounds in Hoboken, NJ, it will mark the conclusion of the 2005-2006 season for the Privateer men’s basketball team and will bring the careers of four talented individuals to an end.

 

- MARITIME -

Team Stat Comparison
	Manhattanville	Maritime
Points	91	67
FG Made-Attempted	34-66 (.515)	25-53 (.472)
3P Made-Attempted	6-19 (.315)	6-21 (.286)
FT Made-Attempted	17-23 (.739)	11-13 (.846)
Rebounds (Off-Def-Tot)	16-21-37	7-20-27
Assists	11	16
Turnovers	11	21
Steals	8	6
Blocks	0	1
Bench Points	26	18
Fouls (Tech)	12 (Fiefie-1)	19(none)
Largest Lead	24	n/a