Riverdale, N.Y. – The Mount Saint Mary College Women's Basketball team was handed its first conference loss of the season on Wednesday afternoon following a 66-49 defeat on the road at the College of Mount Saint Vincent. Junior Jessica Rini (Seaford, N.Y.) led the scoring attack for the Knights with 14 points.
 
The Knights jumped out to a five point lead in the early going on Wednesday on a Janae Graham (Orange, Conn.) three-pointer and maintained the lead in the opening frame until a Kelly Oliver jumper for the home standing Dolphins knotted the score at 10-10.
 
Brittany Carroll pushed Mount Saint Vincent in front 16-10 on back-to-back triples, before Kayla Cleare (West Hempstead, N.Y.) stopped a 10-0 run from the Dolphins and brought the Knights to within 16-12 after 10 minutes of action.
 
Mount Saint Mary would lead twice in a high scoring second period including on a Lyndsay Pace (Cranford, N.J.) bucket in the final minute that gave the Knights a 33-31 lead with 41 seconds left before halftime. The advantage would last 39 seconds when a Mount Saint Vincent jumper with two seconds left fell through to even the score at 33-33 heading into the intermission.
 
Mount Saint Mary shot an efficient 56-percent from the floor in the opening 20 minutes and went 3-for-6 from beyond the arc. The Dolphins converted at 41.9-percent in the first half and knocked in four three-pointers. Rini led all scorers at the break with 10 points.
 
After an efficient first half, the Mount was held to just 16 points in the final 20 minutes and shot 14.3-percent from the floor, going 5-for-35 overall and 1-for-9 from three-point range. The Dolphins broke the game open with a 15-3 run over the opening 6:01 of the third quarter. The Knights managed just one field goal over that stretch, a three-pointer from Megan Kerutis (Merrimack, N.H.) with 6:46 left in the period.
 
The Knights were held to three points over the first 5:16 of the final stanza as the Dolphins jumped out to a 59-43 lead on a Ryan Doherty three-pointer with 6:06 left in regulation. Mount Saint Vincent's lead grew to a game-high 19 points on a Carroll triple with 91 seconds left to play before a pair of Pace free-throws closed out the scoring in the game.
 
Mount Saint Mary finished the game shooting just under 32-percent from the floor and went 4-for-15 from three-point range. The Dolphins turned the Mount over 27 times and turned those miscues into 26 points on Wednesday.
 
Rini rounded out the day 7-for-16 from the floor on her way to the team-high point total and added five rebounds and a steal. Cleare finished with 11 points and 11 rebounds, while Kerutis netted 11 points, going 3-fofr-3 from behind the arc, and added five rebounds.
 
Pace and Jordyn Hellpap (Hackensack, N.J.) each finished with a pair of steals and each player handed out two assists in the contest.
 
Mount Saint Vincent was led by 15 points, seven rebounds, six steals and four assists from Christina Barone with Carroll coming off the bench to score 12 points, going 4-for-8 from three-point range. Doherty led the team with five assists and chipped in seven points and seven rebounds.
 
Wednesday's loss drops Mount Saint Mary to 8-3 overall on the season and to 4-1 against league rivals. Next up for the Knights is a home date with Farmingdale State on Saturday afternoon. Tip-off with the Rams is scheduled for 1:00 p.m.