Newburgh, N.Y. – The Mount Saint Mary College Men's Basketball team suffered its second straight loss on Saturday following a hard fought 64-60 defeat at the hands of visiting Purchase. Junior Gerard Nocera (Holmdel, N.J.) led the scoring attack with 18 points.
 
After jumping out to a 5-3 lead early on Saturday, the Knights went nearly eight minutes without a field goal. Nocera hit a triple to give the Knights the 5-3 edge and Jason Jones (Lansdale, Pa.) connected on the team's next field goal, a three-pointer, with 10:50 left in the first half.
 
Purchase took advantage and gained a 10 point edge when Kayvon Reid connected on a pair of free-throws to give the visitors a 15-5 lead with 11:13 left before halftime. Purchase would lead by as many as 13 points on a Nikeem Deleon three-pointer with 91 seconds left before the break before Tyler McDine (Suffern, N.Y.) scored five straight points to bring the Knights to within 33-25 at the intermission.
 
Purchase shot 48.1-percent from the floor prior to halftime and held the Knights to a 33.3-percent conversion rate. Givvion Jones led all players at the break with nine points for the Panthers on 4-for-6 shooting.
 
Coming out of halftime, the Knights quickly sliced their deficit to two points following three straight buckets in the first 2:25 of the second stanza. Despite the quick run, the Mount would not be able to pull even with the Panthers until a Jones three-pointer tied the score at 43-43 with 11:14 left in regulation and would not pull in front of Purchase in the second half.
 
Purchase answered the Jones triple with four straight points to move in front 47-43 and jumped in front 51-44 on a Jones second chance bucket with eight minutes left in the tilt. The Knights battled back again to get within 62-60 on a three-point play from Nocera with six seconds left, but two Jones free-throws followed to seal the win for Purchase.
 
The Knights outscored Purchase 35-31 in the second half and shot an even 50-percent from the after halftime. The Mount finished the game converting at 42.1-percent and went 5-for-15 from three-point range. The Mount was outrebounded 38-25 in the game, including 10-2 on the offensive glass leading to a 15-0 against for Purchase in second chance scoring.
 
Nocera led three players in double-figures and equaled the game-high in scoring on Satruday after going 7-for-13 from the floor for the Knights. He added a team-high seven rebounds and an assist. Connor Nicholson (Staten Island, N.Y.) and McDine each finished with 11 points and two assists. Jones knocked in two of the team's five three-points and grabbed five boards.
 
Purchase, who shot 43.6-percent overall, was led by 18 points and seven rebounds from Jones. Deshawn Cann added 10 points and game-highs with nine rebounds and three assists.
 
Saturday's loss drops Mount Saint Mary to 11-9 overall on the season and to 6-6 in Skyline Conference play. Next up for the Knights is a key home date with Sage on Wednesday night. Tip-off with the Gators at the Kaplan Center is scheduled for 7:00 p.m.