Newburgh N.Y. – The Mount Saint Mary College Men's Basketball team won its second straight contest on Tuesday night, topping Purchase 55-46. The Knights held the Panthers to 30.0-percent shooting from the field and 28.6-percent from the three-point line.

The Mount jumped out to a 10-5 lead early in the first half after conference-leading scorer Kendall Francis (Great Neck, N.Y.) scored four points in the first seven minutes. The lead was then pushed to eight after a Chris Mikos (Freehold, N.J.) layup at the ten-minute mark and was pushed to a first half high of 11 after Francis converted a layup in traffic. He finished with 10 points in the first half.

Purchase countered with a 7-0 run with Mezu Agwu knocking down five free throws in a two-minute stretch. The first half finished with an Ethan Fox (Wallingford, C.T.) layup and two free throws from Paul Sienke (Washington, D.C.) to give the Knights a 26-18 lead at the half.

The Panthers came out to start the second half on an 11-4 run and cut the Knights lead to only one after Jordan Knochen and Michael Soffer combined to knock down three three-pointers. A Nick Lucas (Sparta, N.J.) three ignited a 10-0 run where Jameson Morton (Woodstock, N.J.) scored four of his six points on the night for the Knights.

A back and forth final four minutes saw the lead get cut to three multiple times, but the Knights knocked down several late game free throws as the game ended with a Mount Saint Mary nine-point victory.

Francis led the way with 14 points on 7-of-12 shooting and finished with four rebounds. Sienke finished the night with 12 points on 4-for-8 shooting, four rebounds and four steals. Fox added eight points, five rebounds and two blocks, while Morton had a career-high eight rebounds.

Michael Soffer finished with 13 points including a trio three-pointers, to lead Purchase in scoring. Elijah Lott and Jordan Perdomo each had a team-high seven rebounds and Maxx Miller had three assists.

The Mount outshot Purchase 42.9-percent to 30-percent from the field while the Panthers knocked down eight threes compared to just one for the Knights. Mount Saint Mary converted 21 Purchase turnovers into 24 points, outscored the Panthers 36-8 in the paint and scored 13 fast break points.

At 5-1 overall and 3-1 in conference on the season, Mount Saint Mary travels to Riverdale to take on Mount Saint Vincent on Friday. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m.