BROOKLYN, NY – Trailing by five near the midpoint of the second half, the Mount Saint Mary College men's basketball team used a 17-1 run to take control of the game on their way to a 75-69 defeat of the Polytechnic Institute of NYU. The Blue Knights snapped a five-game losing streak and improved to 2-5 overall, 1-2 in the Skyline Conference. The Blue Jays dropped to 0-9 and 0-4 in the conference.

Down 51-46 at the twelve minute mark, senior Chris Harrison (Baldwin, N.Y.) started the run with five consecutive points, tying the game with a pair of free throws at the 10:43 mark. Sophomore Tim Morris (Greenwich, N.Y.) hit a pair of free throws to give the Blue Knights the lead and Polytechnic answered with one-of-two free throws at the other end. From there, Harrison scored eight of the next ten points for the Mount, eventually capping the run with a jumper at the 7:08 mark that made the score 63-52.

Polytechnic would actually trim the lead back down to two with a 9-1 run of their own that made the score 68-66 with 2:23 remaining. And after Mount Saint Mary senior Matt Cunningham (Roswell, Ga.) extended the lead to four with a jumper, Polytechnic senior Thomas DeMarco (Salt Lake City, Utah) drained a three to make the score 70-69. The Blue Jays were never given a chance to tie, though, as senior Alex Kuchar (Rutherford, N.J.) answered with a triple of his own on the next possession to put the game out of reach.

Harrison tied for a game-high with 30 points, 24 of them coming in the second half. He finished 10-of-17 from the floor, 10-of-13 from the line, and also collected 11 rebounds. Kuchar totaled 18 points and Cunningham had 10. Freshman Carlos Valdez (Slate Hill, N.Y.) continued his recent strong play with 8 points and 15 rebounds.

For the Blue Jays, DeMarco shot 11-for-23 from the field and finished with 30 points. Sophomore Anthony Mottola (Brooklyn, N.Y.) had 14 points and 10 boards while sophomore Arjun Ohri (Bridgewater, N.J.) tallied 12 points.

After several weeks off, Mount Saint Mary will return to action in the New Year as they head to the Marymount Invitational in Arlington, Virginia. The Blue Knights will take on Cabrini College in the first round of the tournament on Saturday, January 3 beginning at 2:00 p.m.