Newburgh, N.Y. – The Mount Saint Mary College Men's Basketball team suffered its third straight defeat on Wednesday night following a 69-56 Skyline Conference loss to visiting Sage at the Kaplan Center. Juniors Tyler McDine (Suffern, N.Y.) and Gerard Nocera (Holmdel, N.J.) each scored 12 points for the Knights.
 
Mount Saint Mary led by three points twice in the opening two-and-a-half minutes on Wednesday, but saw Sage move in front 12-7 following a quick 7-2 spurt covering just under two minutes. The lead for the Gators grew to 21-11 on a Barceem Dukes bucket midway through the opening stanza to give the Gators their largest lead of the half.
 
After falling behind by double-figures with 10:05 left in the first half, the Knights allowed just six more points heading into halftime. The Mount outscored Sage 14-6 over a nine minute stretch, going 6-for-17 from the floor. Six different players score for Mount Saint Mary over the run as it cut its halftime deficit to 27-25 on a Jason Jones (Lansdale, Pa.) triple with 64 seconds left before the break.
 
Both team s struggled from the floor in the opening 20 minutes, with the Knights shooting 34.4-percent and Sage converting at 32.4-percent. Marcus Patterson led all scorers at the break with seven points for Sage, while Connor Nicholson (Staten Island, N.Y.) led the Knights with five tallies.
 
Coming out of the break, Mount Saint Mary sliced its deficit to a single point twice in the early going of the second half, but saw Sage pull in front 37-31 on a Jordan Devaughn three-pointer with 16:08 left in regulation.
 
The Mount stayed within two possessions of the Gators until Devaughn connected on another triple to push the advantage to 42-35. The Knights battled back again to get within three points on a McDine jumper before Sage ripped off 11 of the next 14 points to move in front 53-42 on another DeVaughn trey with 7:49 left in the contest.
 
Mount Saint Mary pulled to within seven points twice coming down the stretch, but Sage went 11-for-13 from the free-throw line over the final 3:31 of the game to close out the 13 point victory.
 
Nocera did all of his scoring after halftime for the Knights and finished the game 5-for-19 from the floor to go along with seven rebounds. McDine finished up 5-for-10 from the field and added an assist.
 
Nicholson finished off a solid all-around game with nine points, four rebounds and a team-high three assists, with Jones adding six rebounds and freshman Jovin Ramos (Secaucus, N.J.) securing a team-high two steals.
 
Sage was led by 17 points from both Patterson and Frame Larose and received 16 points from Devaughn. Patterson led all players with 14 rebounds and Devaughn paced the team with three assists.
 
Mount Saint Mary finished the game shooting 35.8-percent and knocked in six three-point field goals. The Knights were outscored 14-2 from the free-throw line and 28-20 in the paint on Wednesday.
 
Wednesday's loss drops Mount Saint Mary to 11-10 overall on the season and to 6-7 in Skyline Conference play. The Knights close out a three game home stand on Saturday when they play host to Maritime. Tip-off at the Kaplan Center is scheduled for 2:00 p.m.