Purchase, N.Y. – In a tightly bunched Skyline Conference, the Mount Saint Mary College Men's Basketball team dropped a key 67-59 road decision at Purchase on Thursday evening. The loss drops Mount Saint Mary into a third place tie with Purchase with third through sixth place currently separated by a single game.
 
A tightly contested first half saw the home standing Panthers open a six-point lead following a 13-3 stretch capped off by a Rob Grullon lay-in with 11:42 left before halftime. The Knights converted just one field goal over the run, a lay-in and three-point play from freshman Paul Sienke (Washington, D.C.).
 
Purchase maintained the lead until a pair of Jovin Ramos (Secaucus, N.J.) free-throws pushed the Mount in front 14-13, part of a 14-1 stretch by the Knights that saw them surge in front 21-14 on a Gerard Nocera (Holmdel, N.J.) lay-in with just over six minutes left in the half.
 
The Panthers battled back to knot the score at 26-26 on a pair of Michael Soffer free-throws in the final minute, but a Nocera conversion in the closing seconds of the half sent the Knights into the intermission with a slim 28-26 advantage.
 
The Mount converted at better than 43-percent from the floor prior to halftime and held the Panthers to a 32-percent effort, including a 3-for-12 showing from three-point range. Nocera led all scorers at the break with nine points, going 4-for-7 from the field with a three-pointer.
 
After holding Purchase to under 40-percent in the opening stanza, the Panthers rebounded to shoot 52-percent from the floor in the second half, connecting on six of their 10 three-point attempts, while the Mount struggled from the floor, going 11-for-39 after halftime and 3-for-16 from bonus distance.
 
After the lead changed hands twice in the early part of the second half, Purchase used a 15-4 run to open a 43-34 advantage on a Deshawn Cann triple with 14:06 left in regulation. The lead hit nine points two more times before a Mount Saint Mary spurt sliced the disadvantage to 51-48 on a Daniel Wolff (Holtsville, N.Y.) three-point play with 4:29 left to play.
 
Purchase answered the Mount run with a 9-2 run to push the lead to double-figures for the only time in the game with 72 seconds left to play. A Tyler McDine (Suffern, N.Y.) triple with 23 seconds left got the deficit to five, but the Panthers knocked in three of their four free-throws down the stretch to seal the win.
 
McDine finished the game 6-for-15 from the floor with four triples on his way to 19 points. He added three rebounds and three assists for the Knights. Nocera wrapped up the evening with 15 points and five rebounds, while Wolff paced the team with eight boards and chipped in five points.
 
Cann led all scorers for Purchase with 22 points, adding game-highs in rebounds with 13 and assists with five. Soffer added 14 points in the win and Nikeem Deleon finished up with 11.
 
Mount Saint Mary finished the game shooting 33.9-percent overall and 24-percent from three-point range, while the Panthers converted at 42-percent overall and just shy of 41-percent from distance. Mount Saint Mary held the edge in paint points 28-20, while Purchase finished with a 10-0 edge in second chance scoring.
 
At 7-10 overall and 7-5 in Skyline Conference play, the Knights will host St. Joseph's-Brooklyn in an important conference matchup on Saturday afternoon. Tip-off with the Bears is scheduled for 1:00 p.m.