Newburgh, N.Y. – The Mount Saint Mary College Men's Basketball team opened Skyline Conference play on Thursday night with a 74-52 home loss to visiting Manhattanville. Senior Kendall Francis (Great Neck, N.Y.) paced the offense with a game-high 23 points.
 
The Knights scored the first four points of the game and held a lead of as many as four points on five occasions over the opening 10:47 on Thursday. Following a Nick Lucas (Sparta, N.J.) lay-in that gave the Mount an 18-14 lead, the visitors scored the next six points on a pair of Mike Granda triples to pull in front 20-18.
 
Mount Saint Mary would pull even with the Valiants three times over the final 7:09 of the first half, but would never hold the lead again on the night. Jake Dunn buried a triple to give Manhattanville a half-high 30-24 lead with 2:11 left in the opening period, before Francis and Zack Swaby (New Windsor, N.Y.) got the Mount to within 30-28 with back-to-back buckets to end the half.
 
The Mount converted at nearly 43-percent from the floor in the opening 20 minutes and limited Manhattanville to 33.3-percent shooting. The Valiants, however, knocked down five three-pointers prior to the intermission and outscored the Mount by two from the free-throw line. Granda led all scorers at the break with 11 points, while Francis led the Knights with nine first half tallies.
 
Francis canned a three-pointer just over four minutes into the second stanza to get the Mount to within 34-33, but Manhattanville used a quick 11-2 run to spread its lead to double-figures for the first time at 45-35 with 13:00 left to play. JoJo Cobbs scored five points over the spurt for the Valiants, including a three-point play to cap the run.
 
After the Mount got the deficit under double-figures on the following possession, Manhattanville pulled away with a 20-6 run covering better than seven minutes to grab a 65-42 advantage with 4:50 left in regulation time. The Valiants shot 8-for-12 from the floor over the run, knocking in three triples, and held the Knights to 2-for-12 shooting. Tommy Lotito keyed the Manhattanville run with 11 points.
 
Mount Saint Mary cooled to 26.9-percent shooting in the second half and went 1-for-6 from three-point range, while Manhattanville converted at better than 54-percent and knocked in seven triples after halftime. Francis scored 14 points after the break to lead all scorers in the second half.
 
Francis scored at least 20 points in a game for the fifth time this season after going 8-for-15 from the floor, including both of the team's three-pointers in the game. He matched the team-high in rebounds with eight and led the team in assists with four.
 
Ethan Fox (Wallingford, Conn.) got to double-figures in scoring for the third time in the last four games and for the fourth time this season with 10 points on 4-for-8 shooting. He added eight rebounds for the Mount on Thursday. Jameson Morton (Woodstock, N.Y.) was one of four players with four points, adding three caroms, an assist and the team's lone blocked shot of the game.
 
Manhattanville saw three players reach double-figures, led by 14 points apiece from Granda and Lotito who combined to go 8-for-13 from three-point range in the game. Cobbs chipped in 12 points with Lotito and Ryan Giordano each blocking a pair of shots. Petey Galgano closed a strong night with eight points, seven rebounds and a game-high five assists.
 
Mount Saint Mary finished the night shooting 35.2-percent overall and 15.4-percent from three-point range. Manhattanville shot 44.3-percent overall and just shy of 42-percent from three-point range and finished with a 27-9 advantage in bench scoring.
 
Thursday's loss drops Mount Saint Mary to 2-8 overall on the season and to 0-1 in Skyline Conference play. The Knights look to get back into the win column on Saturday when they close out a five-game home stand against Maritime. Tip-off with the Privateers is set for 1:00 p.m.