Newburgh, N.Y. – Junior Tyler McDine (Suffern, N.Y.) hit the game winning bucket with three seconds left in overtime and classmate Gerard Nocera (Holmdel, N.J.) led all players with 21 points as the Mount Saint Mary College Men's Basketball team earned a 74-72 overtime victory for its fourth straight win on Monday evening.
 
The Knights did not trail in the first half on Monday and grabbed a 24-14 advantage on a pair of T.J. Patsalos (Newburgh, N.Y.) free-throws with 4:44 left before halftime. Connor Bacci (Bayside, N.Y.) later moved the Knights in front by 11 with a pair of free-throws, before the Mount carried a 31-23 advantage into the intermission.
 
Mount Saint Mary held the visitors to 25-percent shooting in the opening 20 minutes and the visiting Nittany Lions went just 1-for-13 from beyond the arc. The Knights, who were paced by seven first half points from Kendall Francis (Great Neck, N.Y.), shot 35.5-percent from the field in the first half.
 
Coming out of the break, the Mount used back-to-back layups from Nocera and Patsalos to move in front 35-23, before Penn State-Abington used a 19-8 stretch to pull to within 43-42 with just shy of 12 minutes left in regulation. The Nittany Lions connected on four triples over the run and were paced by nine points from Don Sloan.
 
Mount Saint Mary maintained the lead until the 5:39 mark of the second half when the visitors pulled even at 53-53 following a Vincent Luciano three-pointer. Penn State-Abington took its first lead of the game on a Nick Brown conversion with 4:42 left in the second half and grabbed its largest lead, a three-point advantage, on a Kenny Bey-Brown second chance bucket.
 
Trailing by three points with under a minute left in the half, Mount Saint Mary got the game even and forced extra time when Connor Nicholson (Staten Island, N.Y.) buried a three-pointer from the right wing to knot things at 60-60 with 32 ticks remaining. Penn State had a look in the final seconds, but a triple try from Sloan was missed.
 
In the extra frame, Mount Saint Mary went 7-for-10 from the floor with Nocera and McDine combining for 12 of the team's 14 points. The Knights grabbed a three point advantage twice in the overtime period and after the Nittany Lions tied the score at 72-72 with 18 seconds left, McDine hit a base line jumper in the closing seconds to give the Mount their fourth straight win. A half court attempt from John Ryan caromed off the backboard and front rim at the horn.
 
Nocera scored 17 of his game-high 21 points after halftime and finished the contest 10-for-19 from the floor. He reached the 20 point plateau for the second time this season and finished with his first double-double of the season with a team-high 11 rebounds.
 
McDine rounded out the game with 12 points and six assists, while Francis netted a career-high 11 points after going 5-for-9 from the floor. Patsalos and Bacci each contributed nine points for the Mount, with Bacci hauling in six rebounds and handing out a pair of assists.
 
Penn State-Abington featured four players in double-figures, led by 15 points and four assists from Ryan. Brown rounded out the day with 11 points and equaled the game-high with 11 rebounds.
 
Mount Saint Mary finished the game shooting 41.1-percent overall and outscored the visitors by 12 in the paint. Penn State-Abington was held to 35.8-percent shooting and finished the game 9-for-33 from three-point range.
 
At 7-3 overall on the season, Mount Saint Mary will return to conference play on Wednesday when it hosts the United States Merchant Marine Academy. Tip-off with the Mariners is scheduled for 7:00 p.m.