Blue Knights Suffer Season Opening Loss

ABINGTON, PA. – The Mount Saint Mary College Men’s Basketball team opened the 2017-18 season on Wednesday with an 84-68 road loss at Penn State-Abington. Senior Daniel Wolff led three players in double-figures with 21 points.

In a back-and-forth first half, the Mount moved out to an early eight point lead when a three-pointer from Tyler McDine pushed the Knights in front 16-8 just over six minutes into the contest. The Mount maintained the lead until a 15-2 run from the Nittany Lions, capped by a Kevin Raymond three-pointer that pushed them in front 23-18.

Following the McDine three-point field goal, the Knights made just one more field-goal until a Gerard Nocera conversion with 4:07 left before halftime that cut the Penn State Abington advantage to 32-22. The Nocera conversion started a 13-2 stretch for the Knights that cut their halftime deficit to just 34-33. Wolff sparked the run with a three-point play and a three-point field goal at the horn.

Six of the Mount’s 10 field goals in the opening 20 minutes came from behind the arc, as the Mount shot 34.5-percent overall and 46.2-percent from distance. Wolff led all scorers at the break with 11 points.

Penn State-Abington converted at a 35.5-percent clip before the break, but made eight three-pointers, including three from Raymond to build the halftime lead. Raymond led the NIttany Lion scoring attack in the first half with nine points.

The Knights stayed within a possession coming out of halftime, until a triple from John Ryan and a lay-in from Jordan Lomax pushed Penn State-Abington in front 41-35 with 17:53 left in regulation. The Mount battled back to within a point on a Connor Bacci triple, but saw the Nittany Lions score the next seven points to push its lead back to 48-40.

Devin Hill moved the lead back to double-figures with a three-pointer at the 11:49 mark of the second half and the Mount would not be able to get closer than seven points the remainder of the night. Over the final 1:29, Penn State-Abington converted eight of its 10 free-throws to close out the final 16 point decision.

The Mount shot 44-percent in the second half, but went 2-for-9 from behind the arc to finish the game converting at 38.9-percent overall and 36.4-percent from bonus distance. The Knights misfired on 11 free-throws and were outscored at the stripe 23-18.

The NIttany Lions shot 46.2-percent for the game and 43.3-percent from three-point range to go along with an 85.2-percent conversion rate at the free-throw line. Penn State-Abington showed five players in double-figures, led by 16 points and 13 rebounds from Lomax.

Wolff finished up 7-for-19 from the floor, with two triples, for a game-high 21 points. He led the Knights with seven rebounds to go along with two assists and two steals. Nocera netted 12 points and led the team with three assists, with McDine finished with 11 points and a pair of helpers.