Newburgh, N.Y. – Jason Jones (Lansdale, Pa.) led three players in double-figures with 15 points as the Mount Saint Mary College Men's Basketball team scored an important 64-59 Skyline Conference victory over visiting St. Joseph's-L.I. Tuesday night at the Kaplan Center.
 
In a first half that featured runs for both teams, the Knights opened a 10-0 lead and held the visitors off the board until a Frank Basile three-pointer at the 13:25 mark of the opening period. The Knights had four different scorers over the initial spurt, with Connor Nicholson (Staten Island, N.Y.) hitting a three-pointer and Gerard Nocera (Holmdel, N.J.) capping the run with a three-point play.
 
After falling behind by 10 points early, St. Joseph's started a 15-2 run with the Basile triple that saw it take its only lead of the game at 15-12. Fernando Vasquez keyed the run with a pair of three-pointers and later capped the run with a lay-in at the 7:19 mark of the first period.
 
Mount Saint Mary got the game even on a second Nicholson three-pointer that started a 14-2 run for the Knights heading into halftime. The Mount held the Golden Eagles to one field goal over the final 7:06 of the opening stanza and the Mount went 6-for-12, including two three-pointers, to open a 26-17 lead at the intermission. Five different Knights scored over the closing run, led by five points from Jones.
 
The Knights had seven different player find the scoring column in the opening 20 minutes, led by six points from Nicholson. Nocera closed out the first half with five points and six rebounds for the Knights who shot 37.9-percent from the floor.
 
T.J. Patsalos (Newburgh, N.Y.) quickly gave the Knights an 11 point lead with a bucket in the opening moments of the second half and the Mount led by as many as 12 points following another three-point play from Nocera with 15:15 left in regulation time.
 
Mount Saint Mary maintained the lead until the 6:06 mark of the second half when a pair of Isaiah Moore free-throws capped a 19-10 stretch from the visitors that knotted the score at 43-43. The Mount was held to 3-for-11 shooting over nearly eight minutes, while Vasquez scored eight points for St. Joseph's who went a perfect 11-for-11 from the free-throw line.
 
The Knights regained the lead on a pair of Tyler McDine (Suffern, N.Y.) free-throws and later spread its lead to eight points on a Nocera three-pointer with 1:27 remaining in the contest. Starting with the McDine conversions from the free-throw line, the Mount went 10-for-10 from the stripe over the final 5:50 to secure the victory.
 
Jones scored 10 of his team-high 15 points after halftime on Tuesday and finished the game 5-for-10 from the floor and 4-for-4 from the free-throw line. Jones matched his career-high with eight rebounds and added a steal in the win.
 
Nocera produced his third double-double of the season after posting 13 points and 11 rebounds, while McDine rounded out a trio in double-figures with 10 points to go along with six assists. Patsalos, Nicholson, Jovin Ramos (Secaucus, N.J.) and Andrew Holmes (Niskayuna, N.Y.) all scored six points, with Patsalos adding eight rebounds for the Knights.
 
St. Joseph's was led by a game-high 28 points form Vasquez who went 7-for-10 from three-point range. Andy Laurent led the team with eight rebounds and six assists on the night.
 
Mount Saint Mary shot 37.5-percent from the floor in the game and went 4-for-14 from behind the arc. The Knights held St. Joseph's to 32.2-percent shooting from the floor, with the Golden Eagles knocking down nine three point field goals.
 
Tuesday's win moves Mount Saint Mary to 11-7 overall and to 6-4 in Skyline Conference play. The Knights will hit the road on Thursday when they travel to South Division foe Yeshiva. Tip-off with the Maccabees is scheduled for 8:00 p.m.