Newburgh, N.Y. - Led by fifteen points from sophomore Catie Biordi (Beacon, N.Y.), the Mount Saint Mary College women's basketball team earned their ninth straight victory Wednesday night with a 77-48 rout of Bard College. The Blue Knights improved to 22-2 and 16-1 in the Skyline Conference while the Raptors dropped back to 10-14 overall and 4-13 in the conference.

Mount Saint Mary scored the opening basket of the game and never trailed in the contest. Leading 18-9 with 11:22 remaining in the first half, Biordi nailed a three-pointer from the corner to extend the Mount's advantage to twelve. Bard freshman Blaire Moldenhauer (Albany, Mo.) responded with a jumper at the 10:59 mark to cut the deficit back to ten, but it would be the closest the Raptors would get for the rest of the way. The Blue Knights answered the Moldenhauer bucket with an 8-0 run. Biordi book-ended a three-pointer by junior Brittany King (Cold Spring, N.Y.) with a three-pointer of her own and a lay-up to make the score 29-11 with just over nine minutes to play. Mount Saint Mary carried a 46-22 lead into the intermission.

The Blue Knights pushed the lead to thirty for the first time as sophomore Kelly McCourt (West Milford, N.J.) hit a lay-up at the 9:50 mark of the second to make the score 62-32. McCourt also provided the Blue Knights with their biggest lead of the evening, hitting another lay-up at the 1:34 mark to push the margin to thirty-three (77-44).

Biordi connected on 6-of-8 attempts from the field and was 3-for-5 from three-point land. Junior Meredith Paggi (Wappingers Falls, N.Y.) and sophomore Shannon Sangster (Syracuse, N.Y.) each had 10 points to pace the Blue Knights. Paggi pulled down a team-high 6 rebounds while senior Megan Kimmey (Troy, N.Y.) and King tied for a team-high with 6 assists.

Moldenhauer finished with 14 points and 6 rebounds for the Raptors. Senior Elyse Rivas (San Jose, Calif.) totaled 8 points and 13 rebounds, but shot just 3-for-15 from the field.

With the victory, Mount Saint Mary should lock up the top seed in the Skyline tournament pending a late result from elsewhere in the conference. If Mount Saint Vincent defeats Yeshiva in late action tonight, the Blue Knights will have home-court advantage throughout the playoffs, regardless of their result on Saturday. MSMC closes the regular season on February 23 by hosting St. Joseph's College in a game that is scheduled to tip at 2:00 p.m. Bard was eliminated from playoff contention with the loss tonight and will close their season on Saturday by hosting Polytechnic beginning at 2:00 p.m.