Rochester, N.Y. – Sophomore T.J. Patsalos (Newburgh, N.Y.) poured in a career-high 18 points and led four players in double-figures, but the Mount Saint Mary College Men's Basketball team was upended on Saturday night at Nazareth by a score of 83-70.
 
Mount Saint Mary got off to a good start in Saturday's season opener, jumping out to its largest lead of the game twice in the opening moments of the contest. Junior Gerard Nocera (Holmdel, N.J.) hit a triple to push the Mount in front 5-2 and Daniel Wolff (Holtsville, N.Y.) converted a lay-in to push the Knights in front 7-4 with 17:16 left in the first half.
 
Josh Gillard hit back-to-back triples to move the Golden Flyers in front 10-7 and would not surrender the lead again on the night. Owen Heath (Jamestown, R.I.) would hit a jumper just under eight minutes into the game to slice the Mount deficit to 17-16, but a 9-2 spurt from Nazareth saw its lead jump back to eight points at 26-18.
 
The Knights answered with six straight points to get back to within two points with 5:37 left before halftime, but Nazareth answered again with a 9-1 stretch to push its lead to double figures for the first time on the night. A Tyler Stenglein jumper in the final 66 seconds gave the Golden Flyers their largest lead of the half, an 11 point bulge, before a Wolff conversion brought the Mount to within nine heading into the intermission.
 
Mount Saint Mary shot just better than 39-percent from the floor in the opening 20 minutes with Nocera leading the team with nine first half points. Nazareth shot an even 50-percent from the floor before halftime and was paced by 11 points from Stenglein.
 
Mount Saint Mary kept its deficit under double-figures until the 15:31 mark of the second half when Brendan Wind converted to give the Golden Flyers a 47-36 lead. The Knights climbed back to within five points on a Tyler McDine (Suffern, N.Y.) bucket, but saw Nazareth use an 18-6 run to open a 68-51 lead on a Gillard triple with 6:32 left in the contest.
 
Nazareth improved its first half shooting effort by going 14-for-27 from the floor in the second frame and got 11 more points from Stenglein on its way to outscoring the Mount by four in the second half. He closed the game leading all scorers with 22 points.
 
Patsalos scored 16 of his career-high 18 points after halftime and finished the game 7-for-10 from the floor. He added four rebounds and a block for the Knights. McDine added 16 points on the strength of a 12-for-14 effort from the free-throw line and handed out three assists.
 
Nocera scored 15 points in the season opener for the Mount, with Wolff chipping in with 10 points. Both players rounded out the game with six rebounds. Andrew Holmes (Niskayuna, N.Y) came off the bench to pace the team with eight rebounds.
 
Mount Saint Mary finished the game shooting 37.9-percent from the floor, while Nazareth converted at a 50.9-percent rate.
 
Saturday's loss drops Mount Saint Mary to 0-1 on the season. The Knights will close play at the Nazareth Tip-off Tournament on Sunday when it takes on Valley Forge at 1:00 p.m.