Miami, Fla. – The Mount Saint Mary College Men's Basketball team opened play in the HoopMIA Division III Holiday Shootout on Monday afternoon with a 76-54 loss to Chapman. A pair of Knights reached double-figures, including T.J. Patsalos (Newburgh, N.Y.) who scored a season-high 10 points.
 
The Mount led twice briefly in the first stanza on Monday, taking a 4-3 lead on a Tyler McDine (Suffern, N.Y.) jumper and then a 20-19 advantage on an Andrew Holmes (Niskayuna, N.Y.) three-pointer that capped an 8-0 run and pushed the Knights in front 20-19 advantage with 7:12 left before halftime.
 
Chapman quickly regained the lead on a Reed Nakakihara three-pointer and closed the first period on a 21-7 run to carry a 40-27 advantage into the intermission. The Panthers hit five triples over the closing stretch, including four from Nakakihara.
 
Chapman converted at 42.9-percent prior to halftime and at 42.1-percent from distance, knocking in eight three-pointers over the opening period. Nakakihara canned six triples on his way to 24 first half points, while Holmes paced the Knights at the break with seven tallies. The Knights finished the first half shooting just over 46-percent from the floor, but only 3-for-10 from three-point range.
 
Mount Saint Mary climbed back to within seven points coming out of halftime, keyed by a pair of Holmes jumpers, but Chapman answered with eight quick points to move back in front 48-33 with just shy of 15 minutes left in regulation time.
 
The Knights would not get closer than 11 points the rest of the day and saw the Panthers surge in front by 19 points on a Sean Comer three-point play with 7:37 left in the contest. The advantage for Chapman reached 21 points on a Comer triple late in the second half and ballooned to a game-high 23 points twice in the final two minutes of play.
 
The Mount cooled to 38.5-percent shooting after halftime and made just one of its four three-point attempts. The Panthers improved to 56-percent shooting in the second half and knocked down four more triples in pulling away for their seventh win of the season.
 
Holmes led the Mount Saint Mary scoring attack with 11 points, going 5-for-6 from the floor, adding a pair of rebounds. Patsalos came off the bench to net his 10 points on 5-for-7 shooting and added five rebounds. Daniel Wolff (Holtsville, N.Y.) chipped in with eight points and a team-high six rebounds with McDine contributing seven points and three assists.
 
Chapman was led by 29 points from Nakakihara who finished 7-for-12 from three-point range with Comer coming off the bench to contribute 13 points and a pair of assists. Reed Smith led all players with eight rebounds in the game with Luke Selway posting five points, four rebounds, five assists and a pair of steals.
 
The Knights finished the contest converting at 42.3-percent overall, but went 4-for-14 from three-point range and 6-for-11 from the free-throw line. Chapman shot just over 49-percent for the game and just under 43-percent from distance.
 
At 3-5 overall on the season, Mount Saint Mary closes out play at the HoopMIA Division III Holiday Shootout on Tuesday against Widener. Tip-off with the Pride is scheduled for 2:00 p.m.