Newburgh, N.Y. – The Mount Saint Mary College Women's Basketball team suffered a 57-34 home conference loss on Wednesday evening to visiting Sage. Freshman Kayla Cleare (West Hempstead, N.Y.) paced the Knights with eight points and eight rebounds.
 
After getting off to a quick 6-0 start following a Jessica Rini (Seaford, N.Y.) jumper, the Knights saw Sage rip off the next seven points to move in front with 4:39 left in the opening period. Following a Megan Kerutis (Merrimack, N.H.) bucket to move the Knights in front 8-7, the visitors finished the first quarter on a 7-3 run to take a five point advantage after 10 minutes of play.
 
The Knights got a three-point field goal from Janae Graham (Orange, Conn.) in the early stages of the second quarter and a Kerutis conversion with just over seven minutes left before halftime proved to Mount Saint Mary's final field goal of the half.
 
Sage carried a 27-15 lead into the intermission after holding Mount Saint Mary to 15.8-percent shooting (6-for-38). Kerutis finished with half of the Mount's field goals in the first 20 minutes, heading into the break with a team-high six points.
 
The Gators converted at a 31.3-percent clip prior to the break and knocked in six three-point field goals, including two each from Emily Parlsow and Frankie Pearson. Pearson led all scorers at the break with eight points.
 
Mount Saint Mary would not get a field goal following the Kerutis bucket in the second period until a Bridget Kelly (Farmington, Conn.) bucket with 7:22 remaining in the third quarter. A total of 10:26 of game time ran off the clock between buckets for the Knights, who went 0-for-16 from the floor between conversions.
 
The visitors kept their advantage in double-figures throughout the second half on Wednesday and moved in front by a game-high 27 points on a pair of Amari Duncan free-throws with 1:01 left to play in the contest.
 
The Knights struggled from the floor all night on Wednesday, finishing the game converting at a 19.7-percent rate (13-for-66). The Mount finished the game 1-for-7 from three-point range and 7-for-18 from the free-throw line.
 
Cleare led the way with team-highs in points and rebounds, adding three blocks and a pair of steals. Rini added seven rebounds with Kerutis and Graham adding six points each. Graham added a team-high two assists for the Knights in the game.
 
Sage was led by a game-high 14 points from Genevieve Schoff who competed a double-double with 11 rebounds. Macie Holmes came off the bench to added 11 points and Krystyn Knockwood posted a game-high 12 rebounds and added four assists.
 
Wednesday's loss drops Mount Saint Mary to 3-5 overall on the season and to 1-1 in Skyline Conference play. Next up for the Knights is a trip to defending Skyline Conference Champion Mount Saint Vincent on Saturday. Tip-off with the Dolphins in Riverdale is scheduled for 1:00 p.m.

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