MSMC Blue Knights Battle Past Valley Forge

ROCHESTER – The Mount Saint Mary College Men’s Basketball team picked up its first win of the season on Sunday with a hard fought 61-54 victory over Valley Forge in the consolation game of the Nazareth Tip-Off Tournament. Junior Daniel Wolff led the way for the Mount with a game-high 20 points.

Mount Saint Mary never trailed in Sunday’s contest and used a 12-2 run to open the contest to take its biggest lead of the game on a Wolff triple just over seven minutes into the tilt. The Knights saw the Patriots close to within three points on a Devin Williams three-point play, but regained a seven point advantage on another Wolff triple with just over four minutes left before halftime.

The Wolff triple would be the Mount’s final field goal of the half and Valley Forge finished the opening 20 minutes with the final three points to head into the intermission down just 26-22. The Knights held the Patriots without a field goal over the final 7:30 of the first half to maintain the lead.

Wolff did not miss before halftime for the Knights going 5-fofr-5 from the floor, including four triples, and a 2-for-2 effort from the free-throw line. He scored 16 of the team’s 26 points as the team went 8-for-24 from the floor in the first half, including 5-for-13 from behind the arc.

Mount Saint Mary quickly spread its lead back to seven points coming out of the intermission on a Tyler McDine layup and a Connor Nicholson free-throw in the first 1:16 of the second stanza.

The Mount would grab a 37-29 lead with 12:49 left in regulation on a pair of T.J. Patsalos free-throws, but saw Valley Forge put together an 8-1 spurt keyed by four points from Jerome Staley to slice the Mount’s edge to a single point with 10:36 left.

After the two teams traded three-point field goals, the Knights regained a nine point lead on a pair of McDine free-throws with 40 seconds left keyed by a 10-for-10 effort from the free-throw line. The Knights would convert their final 12 attempts from the line overall to close out their initial win of the season.

Wolff finished the day 6-for-9 from the floor on his way to his first 20 point performance of the season. He added eight rebounds for the Mount. Patsalos picked up a double-double with 10 points and a team-high 11 rebounds, with McDine and Andrew Holmes each adding 10 points.

McDine added five assists in the win and joined Holmes with two steals. Connor Bacci came off the bench to finish with three points, three rebounds and three assists.

Mount Saint Mary finished the game shooting 37.8-percent from the floor and went 21-for-25 from the free-throw line. The Mount converted 12 Valley Forge turnovers in 19 points in the contest.