Newburgh, N.Y. – The Mount Saint Mary College Women's Basketball team closed out the first semester on Thursday night with a 39-38 non-conference home loss to local foe Bard. Sophomore Jessica Rini (Seaford, N.Y.) led the scoring attack with 12 points, while freshman Kayla Cleare (West Hempstead, N.Y.) finished with 10 rebounds.
 
Mount Saint Mary jumped out to an early six point lead on Thursday when Janae Graham (Orange, Conn.) canned a three-pointer to push the Knights in front 12-6 with two minutes left in the opening frame. The bucket would be the last score of the quarter for the Knights, who saw the visitors score the final five points of the first 10 minutes to cut their deficit to 12-11 heading into the second frame.
 
Bard moved in front 16-14 on a Bianka Bell triple and ran out to a 20-14 lead on a fast break bucket from Bell with 5:42 left before halftime. After falling behind by six points, the Knights got four straight points from Cleare and a three-point play from Bridget Kelly (Farmington, Conn.) 1:39 left in the second quarter, but Bell converted with 75 seconds left before halftime to give the visitors a slim 22-21 lead at the intermission.
 
The Knights and Raptors each made eight field goals in the opening period, with Mount Saint Mary making one more three-pointer than Bard over the opening 20 minutes. Cleare led the Knights with eight points at the break and nine rebounds.
 
Coming out of the break, Mount Saint Mary used back-to-back jumpers from Rini to jump back in front 27-24, before going over five minutes without scoring. Bard knotted the score at 27-27 on a Tytravia Riley free-throw before Kelly stopped the drought with a bucket to regain the lead of the Knights with 2:21 left in the third period.
 
Riley tied the score in the final minute of the third stanza for the Raptors but could not pull back in front until a Katie Hopper gave them a 37-36 lead with just over four minutes left in regulation. Riley converted with 3:23 left in the game for Bard's final points of the evening and watched the Knights miss four shots in the final 97 seconds, including a three-point attempt at the horn, to hold on for its fourth win of the season.
 
Mount Saint Mary held Bard to sub 20-percent shooting after halftime, but was outscored by the Raptors 3-0 from the free-throw line in the second half. Riley paced Bard after the break with 11 points and 12 rebounds.
 
Rini, who scored 10 of her team-high 12 points after halftime, finished the game 6-for-13 from the floor, adding six rebounds and two steals. Cleare closed the night with eight points and 10 boards, reaching double-figures in rebounds for the third straight game. Cleare added three blocked shots for the Knights in the game.
 
Graham handed out four assists for the Knights in the game, adding six points and Maite Gritsko (Milford, Conn.) rounded out the game with a career-high eight rebounds.
 
Bard, who finished the game shooting 21.1-percent, was led by 17 points and 22 rebounds from Riley and got 14 points from Bell and 10 rebounds from Alexis Akingbade. Bard posted a 25-11 edge in offensive rebounds, leading to a commanding 23-2 edge in second chance scoring.
 
The Knights closed the game shooting 28.6-percent overall and 21.4-percent from three-point range.
 
Thursday's loss drops Mount Saint Mary to 4-7 overall on the season. The Knights will be off until the New Year when the finish off a three game home stand against Farmingdale State on January 4. Tip-off is set for 5:00 p.m.

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