Newburgh, N.Y - The Mount Saint Mary College Women's Basketball team bounced back on Wednesday evening as the Knights defeated the Maccabees 72-55 at the Kaplan Center. Senior Lyndsay Pace (Cranford, N.J.) led the way with 18 points for the Mount.

The Knights took an early 9-2 lead on three-pointers from sophomores Cameron Villanueva (Columbia, Conn.), Lauren Desrats (Warwick, N.Y.) and Annie Keenan (Nesconset, N.Y.). After a Gabriella Rafaniello (Brooklyn, N.Y.) layup to push the lead to 17-8 with 3:38 left in the quarter, the Maccabees cut the lead to three points twice on buckets from Yuval Nitzan before a Bojka bucket with 29 seconds left pushed the lead to five after one quarter.

The Mount lead was cut to just two points on a Chana Boltax three-pointer with 4:54 remaining in the second quarter. The Knights responded with an 11-2 run to end the quarter, including a three-pointer from Desrats with 57 seconds left to push the lead to 11 points at the halftime break.

Morina Bojka (Prospect, Conn.) led a balanced scoring attack with nine points as six different Mount Saint Mary players tallied points in the first half. The Knights finished at 42.9-percent from the field in the first half and were 5-for-14 from three-point range. Nitzan carried the Maccabees in the first half, scoring 17 points, while the team shot 39.4-percent from the field and 2-for-3 from three-point territory.

The Mount's lead stayed steady in the third quarter until Yeshiva cut the lead down to six on another Boltax three with 5:13 left. Mount Saint Mary concluded the quarter on an 8-2 run, capped by a Pace layup, to push the lead up to 12 points heading into the final quarter.

The Knights lead never fell below double digits in the fourth quarter as it jumped to a game-high 22 points on a lay-in from Pace with 5:09 remaining. Pace finished the second half with 12 points while Keenan added 10 of her own in the half. 

Mount Saint Mary shot 34.3-percent from the field and was limited to 3-for-17 from three in the second half. Nitzan added seven points in the half as the Maccabees shot 37.9-percent from the field and just 1-for-4 from three-point range.

Pace capped her strong night with 18 points on 7-for-15 from the field along with seven rebounds, three assists team-high five steals. Keenan added 17 points, eight rebounds and four steals for the Mount as Villanueva tied her career-high with 11 points. Julia Lavin (Ledyard, Conn.) dished out a team-high four assists and swiped three steals on the night.

Nitzan led the Macs with a game-high 24 points on 11-for-19 shooting and added five rebounds. Mahlia Leventhal grabbed nine rebounds for Yeshiva as Lindsay Brandwein added eight points.

The Mount finished the night shooting 38.6-percent from the field and were just 8-for-31 from three while Yeshiva finished at 38.7-percent and made just three three-pointers. The Knights converted 29 points off turnovers on the evening and outscored the Maccabees 32-26 in the paint. Mount Saint Mary also converted 32 fast break points.

Wednesday's victory improves the Knights record to 17-4 overall and 15-1 in the Skyline Conference. Up next for the Mount is an important road conference tilt against Manhattanville on Saturday afternoon. Tip-off with the Valiants is scheduled for 1:00 p.m.