NEWBURGH, NY – After rushing out to a twelve point lead in the opening five minutes, the Mount Saint Mary College women's basketball team never led by fewer than ten points for the remainder of the game, eventually easing to a 55-43 victory over Purchase College in Skyline Conference action. For the Blue Knights, it was their eighth win in a row as they improved to 12-4 overall and to 9-0 in the conference. The Panthers fell to 9-7 overall and to 5-5 in league play.

Juniors Shannon Sangster (Syracuse, N.Y.) and Meredith Paggi (Wappingers Falls, N.Y.) combined to score the game's first twelve points, staking the Blue Knights to a 12-0 advantage at the 14:47 mark. Purchase would cut the lead to ten on two different occasions in the first half, but never got the lead to single digits. A baseline jumper from junior Catie Biordi (Beacon, N.Y.) with just seven seconds to play in the half gave the Mount a 33-21 halftime advantage.

The Blue Knights pushed their lead to twenty in the opening minutes of the second half when freshman Amanda Horvers (Kingston, N.Y.) drained a three-pointer at the 15:07 mark. Trailing by seventeen with just over two minutes to play, the Panthers closed the game with the final five points to make the score, 55-43.

Sangster finished with a game-high 19 points on 8-of-10 shooting from the field. She also had 9 boards. Paggi completed a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds, while Biordi chipped in 11 points.

Freshman Darian Cotto (Hartsdale, N.Y.) led the Panthers with 8 points. Junior Lilla Mack (Monticello, N.Y.) closed with 7 points and 11 rebounds. Purchase shot just 28.6-percent from the field and struggled from behind the three-point line (4-for-19).

Mount Saint Mary returns to action on Tuesday, January 27 when they host the Sage Colleges at 6:00 p.m. The Blue Knights defeated the Gators earlier this season, 83-33.