Newburgh, N.Y. – Seniors Connor Nicholson (Staten Island, N.Y.) and Mike Stoeckel (Washingtonville, N.Y.) each scored career-highs and combined for 35 points, but the Mount Saint Mary College Men's Basketball team dropped a key Skyline Conference decision to visiting Maritime by a score of 82-72 Saturday afternoon.
 
In a tightly contested first half, the Knights jumped in front 23-16 midway through the opening stanza on a Stoeckel tip-in and maintained the advantage in the first half until an Akil Spruill bucket at the 7:17 mark gave the visitors a slim 26-25 advantage.
 
The Spruill bucket sparked seven straight lead changes in the game before Maritime ran out to a 37-31 lead on a Patrick MacDonald free-throw with 4:28 left before halftime. Andrew Holmes (Niskayuna, N.Y.) brought the Knights to within four at the 4:06 mark, but Maritime scored the final four points of the frame, including a jumper from John Liccese at the horn, to carry a 41-33 lead into the break.
 
Maritime shot nearly 43-percent from the floor in the first half and was led by 10 first half points from MacDonald. The Knights were held to 37.1-percent shooting before halftime with Nicholson leading all scorers at the break with 11 points.
 
Coming out of the break, Maritime raced out to a 59-37 lead after an 18-4 run covering the first 4:04 of the second period. Maritime went 6-for-7 from the floor, including 4-for-5 from three-point range, over the run and was led by nine points from Tim Hoch over the stretch.
 
Mount Saint Mary would not be able to overcome the deficit in the second half, but battled back to make the game a one possession contest after outscoring Maritime by 19 points in the nearly 15 minutes following the initial run. Nicholson scored 12 points over the stretch for the Knights that saw them slice the disadvantage all the way down to 73-70 on a Gerard Nocera (Holmdel, N.J.) conversion with 91 seconds left in regulation.
 
Following the Nocera bucket, the Privateers got a jumper from Liccese and a pair of free-throws from Brendon Halligan to stretch the lead back to seven points and Maritime finished 7-for-8 from the free-throw line in the final minute to secure the win.
 
Nicholson finished the game with a career-high 23 points, going 10-for-19 from the floor with three triples for the Knights. Stoeckel reached double-figures for the first time in his career with 12 points, going 6-for-8 from the floor to go along with six rebounds.
 
Tyler McDine (Suffern, N.Y.) and Nocera each chipped in with 11 points for the Mount, with McDine leading the team with four assists. Jason Jones (Lansdale, Pa.) joined Stoeckel with a team-high six rebounds.
 
Maritime showed four players with at least 10 points, led by 22 from Liccese who led all players with seven assists. MacDonald finished with 20 points and a game-high 15 rebounds, with Hoch and Halligan posting 14 and 10 points, respectively.
 
Mount Saint Mary converted at 37.8-percent for the game and went 6-for-27 from behind the three-point arc. Maritime posted a 49.1-percent conversion rate and outscored the Mount 13-2 on the fast break.
 
Saturday's loss drops Mount Saint Mary down to the .500 mark at 11-11 overall and to 6-8 in league play. The Knights will hit the road on Tuesday when they travel to the United States Merchant Marine Academy. Tip-off with the Mariners is scheduled for 7:00 p.m.