Newburgh, N.Y. – The Mount Saint Mary College Men's Basketball team suffered just its second home loss of the season on Saturday afternoon, dropping a hard fought 58-55 decision to the United States Merchant Marine Academy. Junior Kendall Francis (Great Neck, N.Y.) led the scoring attack with 17 points and prior to the game the program honored its lone senior, Connor Bacci (Bayside, N.Y.), on Senior Day.
 
Mount Saint Mary never led in the game, falling behind early on a Jack Bucher three-point field goal in the opening minute of the contest. The Knights fell behind by as many as seven points in the early going off a James Walsh triple for the Mariners, before battling back to within 9-8 on back-to-back triples from Francis and Nick Lucas (Sparta, N.J.).
 
The visitors answered the Mount's spurt with eight of the next nine points to pull in front 17-10 on a Mike Morseberger jumper with 8:28 left in the first half and gained a double digit advantage when a Connor Green bucket pushed USMMA in front 22-12 with 4:32 left in the half.
 
The Green bucket was part of a 12-4 run to close the half for the Mariners, with a David Washington bucket in the final minute giving USMMA a half-high 29-14 advantage. A Paul Sienke (Washington, D.C.) bucket in the closing seconds stopped the run and brought the Knights to within 29-16 after 20 minutes of action.
 
Mount Saint Mary went 2-for-8 from the floor over the closing 6:20 of the first half and finished the opening stanza shooting 24.6-percent overall and 2-for-12 from three-point range. USMMA converted at an efficient 55.6-percent prior to the break with Washington leading all first half scorers with 10 points.
 
Coming out of halftime, the Mariners used a quick 9-4 run to open up a game-high 18 point lead with just over three minutes gone by in the second stanza. USMMA hit three of its first five shots out of the break and forced five Mount Saint Mary turnovers.
 
Coming out of a timeout after falling behind 38-20, the Mount out together a 12-2 run to slice its disadvantage to 40-32 on a Jameson Morton (Woodstock, N.Y.) layup with 13:33 left. After the visitors stretched the lead back to 12 points, the Mount went on an 11-1 spurt to climb to within 47-45 following a Sienke three-point play with 6:23 left in regulation time.
 
A Walsh three-pointer moved the Mariners back out in front by five points with 5:52 left and they were able to hold off one more charge from the Knights in the final minutes. A Sienke free-throw brought the Mount to within two again with 5:34 left, but the Knights converted just three field goals after that. A Francis triple with six seconds left got the Mount to within the final three-point disadvantage and a look at the horn would not fall as the Mount fell to 10-2 in home games.
 
The Mariners fell off to 39.1-percent shooting after halftime, while the Mount shot nearly 52-percent in the second half, including 4-for-9 from three-point range. Francis knocked in a half of the team's triples after halftime on his way to 12 second half points.
 
Francis paced the Knights in scoring after going 6-for-15 from the floor with a trio of three-pointers. He added three assists and four steals for the Knights. Ethan Fox (Wallingford, Conn.) reached double-figures with 10 points and led the Mount with eight rebounds and a pair of blocked shots.
 
Morton came off the bench to hand out three assists, while Trsitan Millett (Allentown, N.J.) contributed eight points and a pair of steals. Bacci closed out the day with three rebounds, two assists and a pair of steals for the Knights.
 
Washington led four Mariners in double-figures with a team-high 15 points, adding nine rebounds, two blocked shots and five steals. Connor Green finished off a double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds with Bucher wrapping up the win with 10 points, five boards and a game-high five assists.
 
Mount Saint Mary finished the game shooting 38.5-percent overall and went 6-for-21 from three-point range. The Mariners converted at 46.3-percent overall, making one more three-pointer than the Knights and outscoring the Mount by four from the free-throw line.
 
Saturday's loss drops Mount Saint Mary to 13-11 overall and 10-9 in conference play heading into the regular season finale at St. Joseph's-L.I. on Monday. Tip-off with the Golden Eagles is scheduled for 5:00 p.m.