POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. — Senior Devin Price (Inglewood, Calif.) scored his 1,000th career point in the first half, and iced the game with two clutch free throws in the closing seconds as the Marist men’s basketball team defeated Manhattan 62-58 Friday night in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) opener for both teams at McCann Arena.
In an up and down game with two 10-plus point swings, the Red Foxes pulled out the victory with staunch defending, and composure on offense and at the foul line down the stretch in the final minutes of play. Sophomore Chavaughn Lewis (Queens, N.Y.) led a quartet of Red Foxes in double figures with a team-high 17 points.
The Red Foxes got their home fans on their feet early as the team came out of gates fast with a 14-5 run over the initial 5:45 of play. Lewis led the hosts with seven points, as he was a perfect three-for-three from the field.
Manhattan showed why they were picked second in the MAAC Preseason Coaches’ Poll as they calmly responded with a nine-point run to tie the game up at 14 all by the 10:07 mark.
The see-saw action continued as the Red Foxes would rattle off 11 unanswered points over the next 3:22 of play on the strength of a trio of three-pointers. The highlight of this run was a Devin Price trey at 8:35 to put the senior over the 1,000 career point milestone. With that basket, he became the 28th player in program history to hit the milestone and first since Ryan Schneider netted point 1,000 in 2009.
Marist would keep the Jaspers at bay for the rest of the first half as the teams went into the locker room with the score at 34-25. At the half, the Red Foxes were shooting 52.4 percent (11-21) from the field and 50.0 (4-8) from distance, while the Jaspers were held to 29.2 percent (7-24) field goal and 23.1 (3-13) three-point shooting percentages.
The Red Foxes opened their lead up to a game-high 15 point advantage over the first nine minutes of the second half to go up by a score of 47-32.
Manhattan slowly chipped away on Marist’s lead to bring the game within nine at 55-46 by the 5:40 mark in regulation.
In a 2:40 span of play from 5:40 to 3:00, Michael Alvarado would lead the Jaspers on a 12-0 run on the strength of eight individual points.
Down 58-55 with three minutes to play, the Red Foxes came back with a calm demeanor and held the visitors scoreless until the game went to zeroes. With the Jaspers held without a basket, Marist closed the game on a 7-0 run. Junior Jay Bowie (Tampa, Fla.) began the run with the game-tying three-pointer off of an Isaiah Morton (Vineland, N.J.) assist.
After single free throws by Lewis and Morton put Marist in the driver’s seat at 60-58, Price clinched the victory with a pair of makes with 1.4 seconds to go. The contest would go final at 62-58.
For the game, Marist outshot the Jaspers 46.2 percent (18-39) to 36.0 (18-50) from the field and 50.0 (9-18) to 21.1 (4-19) from three-point range.
Individually, four Red Foxes finished in double digits. Lewis led the way with 17 points, while Price added 14, Bowie 11 and Morton with 10. The sophomore point guard also contributed a team-high five assist
Junior Adam Kemp (Sherrill, N.Y.) had a team-high eight rebounds, and sophomore Manny Thomas (Brooklyn, N.Y.) added a career-high seven off of the bench.
Marist is now 3-5 overall; Manhattan fell to 2-5. The Red Foxes are now 5-0 in December MAAC home games under head coach Chuck Martin.
Marist will return to action on Sunday against MAAC foe Canisius. Tip-off at McCann Arena is set for 2 p.m.
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