Newburgh, N.Y. – The Mount Saint Mary College Men's Basketball team returned to action on Monday night and earned a hard fought 80-76 Skyline Conference victory over visiting Sarah Lawrence. The Knights saw four players score in double-figures, receiving 12 points each from Tyler McDine (Suffern, N.Y.), Gerard Nocera (Holmdel, N.J.) and Jovin Ramos (Secaucus, N.J.).
 
A tightly contested first half saw the Mount break a 17-17 tie with a 7-1 run capped by an Isaiah Robinson (Garfield, N.J.) lay-in with 5:19 left to go before halftime. Sarah Lawrence fought back to within three points on a Enike Anyia bucket with 4:10 left in the half, before the Mount closed the half on a 13-5 run over the final 4:09 of the half.
 
George Greene (Hanover, Md.) came off the bench to net five points over the run as the Mount went 5-for-8 from the floor on its way to a 38-27 lead after 20 minutes of play.
 
Both teams shot the ball better than 40-percent in the opening 20 minutes, with the Knights converting at 43.8-percent and the visiting Gryphons shooting 40.7-percent. Each team hit three triples in the first half, with Malin Segal leading all scorers at the break with eight points for Sarah Lawrence.
 
The Knights maintained the lead coming out of halftime, until a three-point play from Austin Jones with just under 13 minutes left in the second half pushed the visitors in front 48-47, capping a 21-9 run over the first 7:18 of the second stanza.
 
The Mount ran back out to a three-point lead following buckets from Ramos and Daniel Wolff (Holtsville, N.Y.) and later spread the lead to 57-51 on a Ramos three-point play just past the midway point of the second half.
 
Sarah Lawrence answered with a 10-1 spurt highlighted by three-pointers from Segal and Jones to surge in front 61-58 with 5:57 left to play and maintained the lead until a triple from Wolff moved the Knights in front for good with just over four minutes left in regulation time.
 
The Knights hit eight of their nine free-throw attempts coming down the stretch and overcame a foul on a three-point attempt up by three points with two seconds remaining. Kaleb Robinson converted just one of the attempts and after a foul, Kendall Francis (Great Neck, N.Y.) knocked in a pair from the charity stripe to give the Knights the final four-point advantage.
 
Sarah Lawrence hit seven three-pointers after halftime and shot nearly 54-percent in the second half, outscoring the Mount 49-42 in the second 20 minutes. The Knights shot nearly 44-percent, hitting three triples, including two big ones from Wolff.
 
McDine finished with 12 points on the strength of an 8-for-9 effort from the line, adding two assists. Nocera went 5-for-14 from the floor on his way to 12 points, adding seven rebounds. Ramos came off the bench to net 12 points in his first action of the season, hitting a pair of three-pointers.
 
Sarah Lawrence showed four players in double-figures, led by a game-high 20 points and eight assists from Jones. Segal added 17 points from the Gryphons, hitting four triples, with Anyia totaling 13 points and a game-high nine rebounds.
 
Mount Saint Mary rounded out the game shooting 45-percent and went 6-for-18 from three-point range. The Gryphons shot just over 47-percent, knocking in 10 three-pointers.
 
At 5-8 overall and 5-3 in Skyline Conference play, Mount Saint Mary closes out the season series with Old Westbury on Wednesday night. Tip-off for the road tilt is scheduled for 7:00 p.m.