NEWBURGH, NY – After trailing by three at the half, Old Westbury outscored Mount Saint Mary College, 58-29, in the second half on their way to a 95-69 victory in Skyline Conference action on Saturday. The Panthers improved to 6-9 overall and to 5-3 in the conference while the Blue Knights dropped to 0-13 overall and 0-6 in the Skyline.

After an opening three-pointer from Mount Saint Mary junior Chris Kingly (Washingtonville, N.Y.), Old Westbury responded with the next nine points. The Panthers pushed their first half advantage to twelve as sophomore Lester Prosper (Bellmore, N.Y.) put back a miss at the 10:59 mark to make the score 26-14. The Blue Knights answered right back, however, as Kingly drained another three, this time kicking off an 18-4 run that gave the Mount the lead (32-30) with just over five minutes to play in the half. After conceding the lead back to the Panthers, senior Chris Harrison (Baldwin, N.Y.) closed the half with back-to-back layups to send the Blue Knights to the locker room with a 40-37 advantage.

From there, things went down hill for the Mount. Old Westbury came out of the break on an 8-0 run and led 52-49 at the fifteen minute mark. The Panthers then conducted a 17-0 run over the next four and a half minutes, putting the game well out of reach. Mount Saint Mary never got closer than fifteen for the rest of the game and Old Westbury cruised to the twenty-six point win.

The Blue Knights connected on 59-percent of their shots in the first half, but dropped down to 38-percent in the second half. The drop-off in three-point shooting hurt the most – the Mount was 6-for-10 in the first twenty minutes, but just 1-for-7 in the closing half. Old Westbury shot 49-percent from the field and connected on 12-of-25 attempts from three-point range.

Harrison led the way for the Mount, finishing with 19 points and 8 rebounds. Senior Matt Cunningham (Roswell, Ga.) was the only other player in double figures with 11.

Prosper had a big night for the Panthers, tallying 20 points, 14 rebounds, and 5 blocked shots. Junior Bill Reese (Selma, Ala.) had 19 points, junior Patrick Bonna (Brooklyn, N.Y.) had 18 points, and junior Hakiem George (New York, N.Y.) had 17 points for the Panthers.

In their next contest, the Blue Knights will host Bard College on Tuesday, January 20 at 8:00 p.m.