NEWBURGH, NY – After a brutal loss at Old Westbury Saturday night, the Mount Saint Mary College men's basketball team was more than happy to take out their frustrations on a winless Bard College men's basketball team. The Mount Saint Mary Blue Knights opened their longest homestand of the season with an 81-47 drubbing of the Raptors in front of an enthusiastic crowd at the Kaplan Center Tuesday night on the first day of the Spring Semester.

After Bard opened the game with a triple from junior Adam Shear (Seattle, Wash.), the first five minutes and forty five seconds featured two ties and seven lead changes with both teams holding a three point lead in that period. Leading 11-10, the Mount went on a 9-2 run to give the hosts an eight point advantage with just over eleven minutes to play in the first half. Senior Matt Cunningham (Roswell, Ga.) gave the enthusiastic crowd something to cheer about as he drained three straight triples to give the Blue Knights a lead they would not relinquish. From there, the Mount took control of the game as they held a 45-30 advantage at the intermission. Junior Justin White (New York, N.Y.) led the Raptors with 10 points at the break.

After the Mount scored the first six points of the second half, Bard starting guard Justin White was given a flagrant technical foul and nearly started a bench clearing incident near the visiting team's bench area. White's night ended early in the second half as he was ejected from the game. Senior Alex Kuchar (Rutherford, N.J.) calmly sank the free throws after the technical foul to extend the Mount's run to eight before Bard scored their first points of the second half. The Raptors would not get any closer than 19 points the rest of the way. With a nineteen point lead in the second half, head coach Duane Davis had an opportunity for all of his players to play in the game.

The Blue Knights were led in scoring by Kuchar, who finished with 14 points, Cunningham with 11, and sophomore Tim Morris (Greenwich, N.Y.) with 10. Meanwhile, the Raptors were led by White and Shear, with 11 points each. The Blue Knights shot 40-percent, while the Raptors only shot just 27.9-percent for the contest. The Blue Knights out-rebounded the Raptors 50-40.

For Mount Saint Mary it was their first official win of the season and they improved to 1-13 and 1-6 in Skyline play. Bard remains winless at 0-13, 0-8 in conference play.

Mount Saint Mary will continue their season long four game homestand this Thursday night, January 22nd, with another Skyline Conference contest against Yeshiva University at 8:00 p.m. It will be the back end of a women's and men's basketball doubleheader starting at 6:00 p.m.