Newburgh, N.Y. – Sophomore Gerard Nocera (Holmdel, N.J.) matched his career-high with 24 points and senior Jason Oder (Levittown, N.Y.) equaled his season-high with nine tallies on Wednesday night as the Mount Saint Mary College Men's Basketball team closed out the home schedule with an 84-77 loss to visiting Purchase.
 
Tightly contested throughout, the game featured seven ties and 12 lead changes with 10 of the lead changes coming after halftime. After falling behind by 10 points in the middle stages of the first half, the Mount rallied to knot the score at 28-28 on a Connor Bacci (Bayside, N.Y.) conversion with 3:49 left before halftime and went into the intermission trailing 37-35 following an Oder triple in the final seconds of the first half.
 
The Knights shot 42.4-percent from the floor prior to halftime and knocked down a pair of triples. Nocera came off the bench to lead all scorers at the break with 10 points after going a perfect 4-for-4 from the floor and connecting on each of his two free-throw attempts.
 
Mount Saint Mary would take its first lead since 6-4 on a Connor Nicholson (Staten Island, N.Y.) three-pointer with 14:52 left in regulation time and would not trail again until a Taylor Foster conversion with 11:14 left to play.
 
The Foster bucket started a string of eight straight possessions in which the lead changed before the Mount used a 6-0 spurt to pull in front 64-59 on a Daniel Wolff (Holtsville, N.Y.) three-pointer with just over seven minutes left in the contest.
 
Purchase erased the deficit with five straight points, but would not pull in front again until a Jose Reyes triple at the 4:58 mark of the second half. The Reyes bucket would give the Panthers the lead for good in the game and Nicholas Jackson hit back-to-back threes to push Purchase in front 75-69 with 2:32 left.
 
The Knights would pull to within five points twice in the final 1:20, but Purchase converted five free-throws in the final 70 seconds to secure the victory on Wednesday.
 
Purchase shot 69.2-percent from the floor in the second half and got 14 points from Jackson who went 5-for-6 from the field and 3-for-4 from behind the arc. The Panthers hit four triples in the second half and outscored the Knights 26-16 in the paint after halftime.
 
Mount Saint Mary finished the game shooting 43.5-percent overall and 36.8-percent from three-point range on Wednesday. Nocera scored 24 points for the second time in his career after going 10-for-14 from the floor and chipping in with 10 rebounds, three assists and three steals.
 
Nicholson knocked in four three-point field goals in the game and went 5-for-8 from the floor on his way to 14 points as he and Nocera combined for 38 of the team's 47 bench points. Wolff was the lone starter in double-figures with 11 points.
 
Oder along with Stephen Steyer (Staten Island, N.Y.) played in their final game at the Kaplan Center on Wednesday, with Oder going 4-for-7 from the floor on his way to nine points to go along with four rebounds and a pair of assists. Steyer was limited to two minutes in his home finale sue to injury.
 
Bacci rounded out the night with nine points for the Knights with T.J. Patsalos (Newburgh, N.Y.) contributing seven points and Tyler McDine (Suffern, N.Y.) handing out five assists.
 
Jackson paced the Panthers with 22 points off the bench, leading three Purchase players in double-figures. Taylor Foster closed a strong night with 12 points, eight rebounds and six assists. The Panthers finished the game shooting 56.9-percent from the floor.
 
Wednesday's loss drops Mount Saint Mary to 7-17 overall and to 5-14 in league play. The Knights will close out the 2015-16 season on Saturday when they travel to St. Joseph's-L.I. Tip-off is scheduled for 3:00 p.m.

Follow the Knights on Twitter@MSMCKnights and Follow on Flickr