The Mount has their Winning Streak Stopped

NEWBURGH – The Mount Saint Mary College Men’s Basketball team saw its three game winning streak stopped on Saturday afternoon with a 71-57 home loss to visiting College of Mount Saint Vincent. Senior Gerard Nocera paced the scoring attack with a team-high 16 points.

The first half was played inside a four-point window until the Knights got a three-pointer from Daniel Wolff with 5:01 left to push the Knights in front 27-22. The Mount built the lead by holding the Dolphins to just a single field goal, a three-pointer from Jose Maestre, for a three-minute stretch.

Mount Saint Mary matched its half-high five-point lead with 65 seconds left before halftime on a Wolff conversion in transition, but the visitors scored the final five points of the half, including a bucket at the horn from Maestre, to knot the score at 29-29 heading into the intermission.

Mount Saint Mary converted at 42.9-percent in the first half and held the Dolphins to 25.6-percent shooting, but the visitors outscored the Knights by three from the free-throw line and by seven in second chance scoring to even the score at the break. Wolff led all scorers before halftime with 12 points.

Mount Saint Vincent came out of the break and used a 20-7 run over nearly nine minutes to pull in front 49-36 on a Jason Barrera jumper with 11:06 left in regulation time. The Dolphins went 7-for-15 from the floor over the run, including 4-for-7 from behind the arc.

The Mount battled back to within six points on a Nocera triple with 4:41 left, but Mount Saint Vincent answered with a Vinny Tavella three-pointer to spread the lead back to nine points with 4:30 left to play. The Knights went without a field goal over the final four minutes of regulation and saw the visitors connect on four of their five attempts down the stretch to pull away for the final 14-point decision.

Mount Saint Vincent improved to better than 48-percent shooting in the second half, going 7-for-13 from the tree-point range in its eighth straight victory. The Dolphins finished the game converting at 35.7-percent, connecting on 11 three-pointers. Barrera led all players in the game with 18 points for the Dolphins with Andrew Curiel posting a double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds and Ammad Alkuhlaidi leading the way with 15 rebounds and three assists.

Nocera paced the Mount with 16 points on 5-for-14 shooting, including a trio of three-pointers, to go along with four rebounds. Wolff did not score after halftime, posting 12 points and joined Connor Bacci with a team-high five rebounds. Paul Sienke came off the bench to produce nine points and four rebounds.

Mount Saint Mary finished the contest shooting 37.9-percent overall and went 6-for-22 from three-point range. The Knights posted a 30-20 edge in paint points on Saturday, while the Dolphins turned 19 offensive rebounds into a 15-3 edge in second chance scoring.

At 7-9 overall on the season and 7-4 in Skyline Conference play, the Knights will return to action on Thursday when they travel to Purchase for a 6:00 p.m. tip-off with the Panthers.

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