Newburgh, N.Y. – The Mount Saint Mary College Men's Basketball team returns to action for the first time in a week on Saturday when it welcomes Farmingdale State to the Kaplan Center and then takes to the road in search of the season sweep against Sarah Lawrence on Tuesday. Saturday's home tilt is set for 3:00 p.m. while Tuesday's road contest is scheduled for a 6:00 p.m. tip.
 
At A Glance: The Mount enters Saturday's Skyline Conference contest at 12-7 overall and 9-5 in league play, but with an unblemished home record of 9-0. The Knights have won three of their last four outings overall, including a convincing 88-68 home win over St. Joseph's-Brooklyn on January 26.
 
The Knights feature a pair of players scoring in double-figures on the season, led by junior Kendall Francis (Great Neck, N.Y.) who is good for 19.5 points per night on 43.5-percent shooting. Francis paces the Mount with 49 three-point field goals on the season and is averaging 2.6 makes from bonus distance per game.
 
Sophomore Paul Sienke (Washington, D.C.) checks in with 10.4 points per game and is shooting and efficient 53.9-percent from the field, with Jameson Morton (Woodstock, N.Y.) good for nearly nine points off the bench for the Mount. Senior Connor Bacci (Bayside, N.Y.), who poured in a career-high 21 points against St. Joseph's-Brooklyn, is chipping in just over eight points per game for the Knights.
 
Ethan Fox (Wallingford, Conn.) is the Mount's leader on the glass with 6.1 caroms per outing and has also blocked a team-high 17 shots heading into the weekend. Bacci leads three players averaging at least two assists per game with 2.7 and has swiped a team-high 27 steals.
 
Among the Skyline Conference leaders, Mount Saint Mary leads the league in field goal percentage defense (39.7-percent) and three-point field goal percentage defense (29.9-percent) and sits second in scoring defense (67.7) and turnover margin (1.53).
 
Last Time Out: The Mount moved to 9-0 at home with a 20-point win over St. Joseph's-Brooklyn on January 26. Bacci led the scoring attack with a career-high 21 points, while Francis contributed 20 points to the winning effort.
 
Bacci and Francis combined to go 15-for-24 from the floor with four triples with Bacci closing the day with six assists and six rebounds. Fox led the Mount on the glass with 10 boards and joined Sienke with nine points in the game. Jovin Ramos (Secaucus, N.J.) scored 11 points off the bench and combined with Morton for 19 of the team's 24 bench points in the game.
 
The Knights shot an efficient 55-percent from the floor in the game and dominated inside, outscoring the Bears 44-28 in the paint. Each team made nine triples in the game, while the Mount outscored the Bears by four from the free-throw line.
 
Reviewing The Rams: Farmingdale State enters a road tilt at Sarah Lawrence on Thursday with a 12-7 overall record and a 10-4 mark against Skyline Conference rivals. The Rams have won three of their last four overall, including an 85-70 win over Maritime on Tuesday.
 
Ryan Kennedy led the Rams in the win with a game-high 24 points with George Riefenstahl producing 15 points, nine rebounds and a pair of blocks. Jermaine Fraser and Chaz Platt rounded out a quartet in double-figures for the Rams with 14 and 11 points, respectively.
 
Heading into Thursday's tilt with the Gryphons, Matthew Graham leads four players averaging double-figures with 15.3 points per game. Riefenstahl is good for 14.4 points per night and leads the Rams with 10.8 rebounds and 2.3 blocks per game, while Ali Mableton is tops on the team with better than three assists and nearly two steals per game.
 
Farmingdale State is second in the conference in scoring at just over 85 points per outing, but sits eighth in the league in scoring defense, allowing better than 77 points per outing. The Rams are good for nearly 14 offensive rebounds per game and lead the league in rebounding with 43 per night.
 
Scouting Sarah Lawrence: After hosting Farmingdale State on Thursday, the Gryphons will host league front runner Yeshiva on Sunday. Sarah Lawrence had a five game league winning streak stopped on Tuesday with a 63-51 loss to Old Westbury and enter Thursday's tilt at 12-8 overall and 10-5 in league play.
 
In Tuesday's loss to the Panthers, Enike Anyia paced the Gryphons with 17 points and 12 rebounds, with B.J. Sanders adding 12 boards and nine points. Andrew Varoli came off the bench for Sarah Lawrence and poured in 15 points, knocking down five three-pointers. The Gryphons shot under 30-percent in the second half against the Panthers and were limited to 34.5-percent shooting for the game and were outscored in points off of turnovers 19-6.
 
Aniye leads a trio of Gryphons scoring in double-figures with 17.4 points per game and is good for and team-high 9.9 rebounds per contest. He is shooting nearly 60-percent from the floor on the season and is playing better than 34 minutes per night.
 
Omar Jamaleddine is scoring 14.9 points per outing and leads the team in blocked shots with 11 and is tied for the team lead in steals with 25. Sanders is scoring nearly 12 points per game and is hauling in better than seven rebounds per outing, while Austin Jones is handing out nearly five assists per game and is tied for team lead in thefts with 25.
 
Sarah Lawrence ranks second in the league in three-point field goal percentage defense (30.1-percent) and ranks sixth in the league in scoring (74.2) and fifth in scoring defense (73.6).
 
What's Next: Following Tuesday's trip to Sarah Lawrence, the Knights return home to take on Maritime on February 9. Tip-off with the Privateers is set for 1:00 p.m.