Albany, N.Y. – The Mount Saint Mary College Men's Basketball team opened Skyline Conference play on Thursday with a hard fought 70-64 road victory at Sage. Junior Daniel Wolff (Holtsville, N.Y.) paced three Knights in double-figures with a team-high 14 points in the contest.
 
The Knights ran out to an early 6-0 lead in the game following a Connor Nicholson (Staten Island, N.Y.) transition bucket and later pulled in front 15-4 on an Andrew Holmes (Niskayuna, N.Y.) bucket just over five minutes into the tilt.
 
Mount Saint Mary maintained the lead throughout the first half and jumped in front by a game-high 13 points when Gerard Nocera (Holmdel, N.J.) converted a layup with 8:21 left before halftime. The Knights saw the Gators pull to within six points with 1:05 left in the half, but a bucket from Wolff with 45 seconds left sent the Knights to the intermission with a 33-25 lead.
 
The Mount converted at 44.4-percent overall in the initial 20 minutes on Thursday and had seven different players find the scoring column in the opening stanza. The Knight defense held Sage to 30-percnet shooting and a 2-for-14 effort from three-point range.
 
Sage came out of the break and scored the first seven points of the second half to slice its deficit to a single point, but back-to-back conversions from Tyler McDine (Suffern, N.Y.) and Wolff spread the Mount's lead back to five points with 17:08 left in regulation.
 
Mount Saint Mary remained in front until a 6-0 spurt from Sage capped by a Davon Sylvester lay-in gave the Gators their only lead of the night, a 38-37 lead, with 15:38 left to play.
 
The Knights quickly answered with a Connor Bacci (Bayside, N.Y.) triple to regain the lead. The Gators would tie the score at 40-40, but an Angelo Accattato (West Haverstraw, N.Y.) bucket gave the Knights the lead for good in the game with just under 13 minutes remaining.
 
Sage would climb back to within a point twice in the middle stages of the second stanza, but the Knights withheld the rally after shooting an efficient 52.4-percent in the second half, including 3-for-6 from three-point range. The Knights also knocked in 12 of their 16 free-throw chances to hold off the Gators.
 
The Mount finished the game shooting 47.9-percent for the game and received a double-double from Wolff who went 4-for-5 from the floor and 6-for-8 from the free-throw line. He added 11 rebounds, a career-high, an assist and a steal. Nocera finished with 11 points and eight boards, while Bacci came off the bench to finish with 10 points and five steals.
 
Holmes scored nine points and Owen Heath (Jamestown, R.I.) added eight off the bench, with McDine leading the team with three assists to go along with six points and four boards.
 
Sage, who shot 69.9-percent from the floor and scored 130 points in its last outing, was held to 35.9-percent shooting on Thursday and finished up 6-for-27 from three-point range. Wayne Weir knocked in half of the team's triples and led the Gators in scoring with 13 points.
 
Thursday's win moves Mount Saint Mary to 2-2 overall on the season and to 1-0 against league rivals. The Knights will be back on the floor Saturday when they travel to Purchase. Tip-off is set for 12:00 p.m.