Newburgh, N.Y. – The Mount Saint Mary College Women's Basketball team saw its four game winning streak come to an end on Thursday night with a 57-50 home loss to visiting Farmingdale State. Senior Jessica Rini (Seaford, N.Y.) finished with 12 points and her second double-double of the season.
 
The two teams traded runs over the opening 10 minutes with the Knights jumping out to a 6-0 lead following buckets from Katie Smith (Goshen, N.Y.), Maite Gritsko (Milford, Conn.) and Kayla Cleare (West Hempstead, N.Y.) over the first 2:52 of the contest.
 
Farmingdale State answered with a 7-0 spurt to take its first lead of the game on an Essence Casey bucket at the 5:41 mark of the first half, before the Knights used another 6-0 run keyed by a pair of Rini buckets to move in front 12-7 with just under four minutes left in the first stanza.
 
The Rams responded with an 8-2 spurt to finish the period, capped off by a Kaelyn Ward triple with two ticks left to give the Rams the lead at 15-14.
 
The Knights would close to within a point twice in the second period, but could not pull even before halftime. The Rams spread their advantage to four points on a Ward triple with 4:19 left before halftime before taking a 24-21 lead into the intermission. The Knights were held to only three field goals in the second frame, going 3-for-10 from the floor.
 
Although the Mount held Farmingdale State to 28.6-percent shooting in the opening 20 minutes, the Rams connected on four three-point field goals. The Knights converted at 33.3-percent in the first half, but went 1-for-6 from bonus distance. Rini led the Knights with eight first half points, while Ward led all scorers at the break with nine points for the visitors.
 
Coming out of halftime, the Knights got even three times, including at 31-31 on a pair of Elizabeth Limonta (Stewart Manor, N.Y.) free-throws, but could not pull in front of the visitors. Rini sliced the disadvantage to a single point with a bucket late in the third, but that would be as close as the Knights would get the rest of the way.
 
Farmingdale State opened the fourth period on a 7-0 run highlighted by three-pointers from Alexia Antonacci and Casey to move in front by eight points and forged in front by double-figures for the first time on another Casey triple that gave the visitors at 50-40 lead with 2:44 left to play.
 
The lead grew to a game-high 11 points twice in the final 1:24 of play and the Rams went 4-for-6 down the stretch from the free-throw line to seal the road win.
 
Farmingdale State went 9-for-32 from three-point range in the game and finished the night shooting 29.7-percent overall. Casey led all scorers with 19 points with Antonacci and Ward each posting 14. Casey and Ward led the team with 11 rebounds apiece, with Casey handing out five assists and Antonacci adding four helpers.
 
Rini was the only Knight to reach double-figures with her 12 points and led all players in the game with 12 rebounds. Cleare and Limonta each hauled in 10 rebounds with Limonta adding eight points and a pair of blocked shots. Smith paced the team with three assists on the night.
 
Mount Saint Mary finished the game shooting 34.5-percent from the floor, but 27.3-percent from three-point range. The Mount was outscored by nine points off of turnovers, while it bested the Rams in second chance points 13-6 and paint points 20-12.
 
Thursday's loss drops Mount Saint Mary to 5-4 overall and to 4-1 in Skyline Conference play. Next up for the Knights is a non-conference road game at Western Connecticut. Tip-off in Danbury is scheduled for 2:00 p.m.