Blue Knights Suffer Road Loss to Marywood Pacers

SCRANTON, PA. – The Mount Saint Mary College Men’s Basketball team rounded out the 2022 portion of the schedule Friday evening with an 83-63 road non-conference loss at Marywood. Ryan Graham led a trio of Knights in double-figures with a season-high 18 points.

Friday’s loss drops Mount Saint Mary to 4-8 overall on the season, while Marywood gets to the .500 mark overall at 6-6.

First Half
Marywood opened a quick 9-2 advantage on a Caleb Vigil three-pointer just under two minutes into the contest.

The Marywood advantage grew to double-figures for the first time when Jason Holman canned a triple at the 16:08 mark of the opening half to push the Pacers in front 14-4.

Mount Saint Mary would get back-to-back buckets from Connor Cyran and Brenden Graham to get its deficit down to 14-8.

A Vigil lay-in at the midway point of the first half expanded the Marywood lead to 28-14.
Mount Saint Mary answered with an 11-0 run and held Marywood without a field goal for better than three minutes as its slashed its deficit to 28-25.

R. Graham opened the run with a triple and a three-point play and Cyran capped the stretch with a three-pointer at the 6:22 mark of the first half.

Marywood stopped the run with a Cole Johnson three-pointer to push the lead back to six points.

The Mount would come all the way back to knot the score at 36-36 on a three-point play from Graham with 1:24 left in the half, but the Knights would not be able to pull in front.
Marywood answered with five straight points from Brendan Franko, including a three-pointer with 37 seconds left in the half, to carry a 41-36 lead into the intermission.

Mount Saint Mary shot 43.8-percent from the floor before halftime and went 4-for-10 from three-point range.

Marywood shot an even 50-percent in the opening 20 minutes and canned nine three-pointers.

R. Graham led all scorers at the break with 13 points.

Trevor Seitz led Marywood with 10 first half points.

Second Half
Mount Saint Mary came out of the break with eight of the first 11 points of the second half to knot the score at 44-44 on a Jayden Racca three-pointer with 17:28 left in regulation time.

Marywood responded with the next 10 points to build a 54-44 advantage on a Johnson lay-in.

Corey Perkins canned a triple for Marywood at the 11:50 mark of the second half to push the Pacers in front 61-46.

The lead grew to 65-47 on a Johnson three-point play with 9:32 left to play.

Mason Mendygral hit a three-pointer to push the lead to 20 points with Lucas Altmire giving Marywood a game-high 83-58 lead with a layup with 64 seconds left to play.

Jack Sassanella canned a three-pointer for the Knights with 15 seconds left to bring the Mount to the final 83-63 decision.

Mount Saint Mary shot 42.9-percent after halftime and hit on four more three-point field goals.

Marywood cooled to 41.7-percent shooting in the second half but hit on six more three-pointers.

Cyran paced the Mount with six second half points.

Mendygral led all players in the second half with 11 points.

For The Knights
Graham matched his career-high on 6-for-9 shooting, including two three-pointers, and a 4-for-4 effort from the free-throw line. He added two rebounds and a pair of assists.

Cyran finished the night with 16 points on 6-for-10 shooting from the field. Cyran hauled in five rebounds to go along with two blocks and two steals.

Chris Yearwood chipped in 11 points and matched the team-high with three assists.

Justin Rivera and Miles Calame each added three assists apiece with Rivera swiping two steals.

For The Pacers
Mendygral led Marywood with 17 points, hitting on five three-pointers, to go along with six rebounds.

Franko connected on three triples on his way to 16 points.

Seitz scored 13 points, hauled in five rebounds and handed out four assists.

Johnson contributed 12 points and led the team with seven rebounds.

Perkins scored five points and handed out a game-high eight assists.