Mount Men Fall Short Against Purchase College

By Kyle Teixeira

NEWBURGH – The Mount Saint Mary College men’s basketball team was unable to come away with a win against Purchase.

Mount Saint Mary College hosted Purchase College Saturday afternoon for their second and final match-up with each other this season. Both teams struggled to score early on, but Justin Rivera would get an easy look in transition after a steal from Matthew Walsh. From here, the Panthers would score 10 straight to force the Knights to take a timeout. The first half was mostly defense, as both teams shot less than 30% from the field. Mount Saint Mary cut their deficit to 4 points on multiple occasions, but with points hard to come by, the Mount would trail 24-19 at the half.

The second half saw much better offense from everyone, with the Knights’ leading scorer in the game, Brenden Graham, scoring 11 of his team-high 14 points in this half. The Mount hung around, cutting the Panthers’ lead to just 1 point numerous times; however, they were unable to tie the game or take the lead. 7 straight points for the Knights, capped off by an and-one from Soren Holmbo, made it 44-43 Purchase. The Panthers would then take over the game, hitting 7 threes in the half and leading by as much as 19. Purchase would come away with the win over Mount Saint Mary, 69-54.