Newburgh, N.Y. – The Mount Saint Mary College Men's Basketball suffered a hard fought 57-54 loss to visiting Mount Saint Vincent Tuesday night at the Kaplan Center, the Knights first conference loss of the season.
Jayden Figueroa (New Windsor, N.Y.) led three Knights in double-figures with 13 points and finished the contest with his fifth double-double of the season.
Tuesday's loss drops Mount Saint Mary to 5-7 overall and to 3-1 in Skyline Conference play, while Mount Saint Vincent improves to 6-7 and 4-2 in league action.
First Half
- Mount Saint Mary used a 9-0 run to break a 7-7 tie in the early going on Tuesday.
- Following an Aaron Darab jumper for the Dolphins knotted the score at 7-7, the Knights scored the next nine points to surge in front 16-7 on a Jayden Racca (New Fairfield, Conn.) jumper with 11:07 left before halftime.
- The Dolphins climbed to within one point on a Jeremiah Simmons fast break bucket with 9:22 left in the half, but the Knights answered back-to-back Connor Cyran (Garfield, N.J.) conversions to move back in front 22-17.
- Mount Saint Mary would not trail after gaining a 9-7 lead, but saw the visitors knot the score at 24-24 and then again at 30-30 on a Kelvin Harris-Tuner three-pointer with 1:33 left in the opening period.
- Racca converted a layup with 1:08 left before halftime to break the tie and send the Knights into the intermission with a slim 32-30 advantage.
- Mount Saint Mary converted at 46.7-percent prior to halftime, but hit on just three of its 10 three-point attempts.
- Mount Saint Vincent shot 37.9-percent overall and connected on five of its 11 three-point attempts.
- Racca led the Knights with nine points off the bench in the first half.
- Darab paced the Dolphins with eight points.
Second Half
- Mount Saint Vincent quickly erased its deficit coming out of the break when Turner-Harris canned a triple to push the Dolphins in front 33-32.
- The Dolphins went to score the first 10 points of the second half to open a 40-32 lead on an Elijah McKenzie bucket with 15:25 left in regulation.
- Jaxon Baker (Barnegat, N.J.) stopped the run with a triple for the Knights that cut the deficit to 40-35.
- The Dolphins maintained the advantage until the 6:57 mark of the second half when a Figueroa jumper knotted the score at 45-45.
- Jack Lotito (Staten Island, N.Y.) gave the Knights a 46-45 lead with a free-throw and after missing the second free-throw attempt Figueroa secured the rebound and got the put back to push the Knights in front 48-45.
- Figueroa drilled a three-pointer at the 5:09 mark of the half to give the Knights a 51-47 lead, but that would be the Knights final field goal until a Chris Yearwood (Red Hook, N.Y.) conversion with 20 seconds left in regulation.
- Tuner-Harris hit a jumper to give the Dolphins a 57-52 lead before Yearwood scored in transition to cut the game to one possession with 20 seconds left.
- Mount Saint Mary forced a five second call out of a timeout and had two looks in the closing 13 seconds, but was unable to get the game tied.
- The Knights finished the second half just 8-for-31 from the floor and 2-for-12 from three-point range.
- Mount Saint Vincent converted at 44-percent, making three more field goals in the half than the Knights.
- Figueroa led the Mount with 11 points after halftime.
For The Knights
- Figueroa led the Mount with 13 points and 12 rebounds, going 5-for-9 from the floor with a three-pointer.
- Yearwood finished the night with 10 points, six rebounds and three assists.
- Racca tallied 10 points on 4-for-8 shooting.
- Lotito matched his career-high with seven assists, finishing with six points, four rebounds and a pair of steals.
For The Dolphins
- McKenzie led a balanced scoring attack for the Dolphins with 12 points, adding seven rebounds.
- Darab, Simmons and Turner-Harris all posted 11 points with Daran adding six rebounds, two assists and a steal and Simmons totaling a trio of steals.
Game Statistics
- Mount Saint Mary finished the game shooting 36.1-percent overall and 22.7-percent from three-point range.
- Mount Saint Vincent rounded out the night shooting 40.7-percent and 35-percent from three-point range.
- Mount Saint Mary outscored the Dolphins 26-24 in the paint and 8-4 in transition.
What's Next
- The Knights travel to St. Joseph's-L.I. for a Saturday afternoon contest with the Golden Eagles.
- The Dolphins play host to Farmingdale State on Thursday.
