NEWBURGH, N.Y. – The Mount Saint Mary College men's basketball team (7-16, 6-10 Skyline) was defeated by SUNY College at Old Westbury (9-13, 9-6 Skyline) by a score of 61-53 Saturday afternoon in Skyline Conference action at the Kaplan Center.
With the loss, the Knights drop to eighth in the Skyline Conference standings. They still have a slim chance of reaching the Skyline Conference Championship tournament, but need to win their final two Skyline matchups, have Purchase College lose its final three Skyline games, and have Farmingdale State College lose two-of-three conference contests.
The Knights held the lead for much of the opening half, but lost it for good on a three-pointer by Reynaldo Walters that put the Panthers up, 16-15. Old Westbury closed the half on a 10-4 run to take a 32-23 lead into the break.
The game looked to be out of reach with time dwindling and the Knights trailing, 53-35, with 8:44 to play. The Panthers' lead slowly started to disappear, as the Knight turned it around to go on a 16-2 run over the next four minutes to cut the deficit to just four with 4:06 to play. Old Westbury then locked down on defense, holding the Knights to just two more points, which they scored with four seconds remaining, to take an eight-point victory.
Walters led the Panthers with 17 points, while Floyd Leroy and Mark Gjonlekaj followed with 10 apiece. Gjonlekaj also grabbed a team-high eight rebounds.
Freshman forward
Gerard Nocera (Holmdel, N.J.) scored 21 points to lead the Knights on Saturday. Freshman guard
Daniel Wolff (Holtsville, N.Y.) and senior guard
Stephen Steyer (Staten Island, N.Y.) matched each other with 10 points. Freshman guard
Tyler McDine (Suffern, N.Y.) scored just four points, but helped out with a game-high nine assists and four steals. Sophomore forward
Alex Smith (Marlboro, N.Y.) led all players with nine rebounds.
The Knights shot just 32.1 percent (18-of-56) from the field on Saturday, and just 3-for-18 (16.7 percent) from three-point range. Old Westbury hit 43.1 percent (22-of-51) of its shots and 40.9 percent (9-of-22) from long range. The Panthers held a slight 36-35 edge in rebounds. The Knights turned 23 Panther giveaways into 25 points-off-turnovers.
The Knights take on the Skyline Conference leading Sage Colleges on Tuesday, Feb. 17, at the Kaplan Center. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m.
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@MSMCKnights
