Newburgh, N.Y. – The Mount Saint Mary College Men's Basketball team scored a hard fought 65-60 victory over Maritime Tuesday night in its home finale and can clinch a berth into the Skyline Conference Championship with a victory or a Sarah Lawrence loss on Saturday.
Jayden Figueroa (New Windsor, N.Y.) fueled the victory with a double-double to go along with six blocked shots.
Tuesday's triumph improves Mount Saint Mary to 9-15 overall on the season and 6-9 in Skyline Conference play, one game clear of Sarah Lawrence in the league standings. The Knights can clinch a postseason berth with a win or a Sarah Lawrence loss, but would lose a tiebreaker with the Gryphons by virtue of Sarah Lawrence's season sweep of the Knights if the two teams end up with identical conference records.
Maritime falls to 14-10 overall and 10-5 in league play, falling into a tie for second play with USMMA in the Skyline Conference North Division.
First Half
- The two teams traded buckets in the early going, with Ryan Donovan converting a jumper for Maritime to knot the score at 2-2, the only time the two teams would be even in the game.
- Mount Saint Mary never trailed in the contest and took the lead for good in the game back-to-back buckets from Justin Rivera (Hazlet, N.J.) and Elijah Barnett (Poughkeepsie, N.Y.), giving the Mount a 6-2 lead.
- Mount Saint Mary jumped in front by eight points, at 16-8, on a Brenden Graham (Campbell Hall, N.Y.) bucket with 13:54 left before halftime.
- A Connor Cyran (Garfield, N.Y.) bucket at the 9:37 mark of the first half pushed the advantage to double-figures for the first time at 23-13.
- A 9-0 run highlighted by a Ryan Graham (Campbell Hall, N.Y.) three-pointer ballooned the Mount's advantage to 32-15 with 7:31 remaining in the opening period.
- Barnett converted a layup with 2:29 left in the half to open a game-high 38-23 lead for the Knights.
- Maritime whittled its halftime deficit down to just 11 points following a 9-2 closing stretch over the final 2:14 of the opening stanza.
- James O'Connell closed the first half scoring for Maritime with two free throws with six seconds left in the half to send the two teams into the break with the Mount holding a 40-29 lead.
- Mount Saint Mary shot 48.4-percent from the floor in the first half and connected on four triples.
- Maritime shot an even 40.0-percent overall, but went 1-for-11 from long range.
- Mount Saint Mary was a perfect 6-for-6 from the free-throw line prior to halftime, while Maritime went just 4-for-9 from the stripe.
- B. Graham led the way for the Knights with nine first half points.
- Donovan scored seven points in the half to pace the Privateers.
Second Half
- Following a Rivera bucket that gave the Knights a 44-31 lead early in the second half, Maritime put together a 9-0 run capped by a Theo Noble three-pointer to slash the Mount's lead to just 44-40 with 14:12 left in regulation time.
- The Knights pushed the lead back out to 48-40 following back-to-back conversions from Jayden Racca (New Fairfield, Conn.), but would not be able to get its lead back to double-figures again in the game.
- Back-to-back three-pointers from Tyler Anderson and Robbie Mitchell got Maritime to within 52-49 with 7:50 remaining in the game, but the Privateers would be unable to get any closer the rest of the way.
- R. Graham answered the Mitchell triple with a three of his own to get the Knights back in front 55-49.
- Figueroa canned a triple at the 4:04 mark of the second half to increase the Mount's lead to 60-51.
- Following an Aleksandar Begovic layup that cut the Knights lead to 60-56, Figueroa connected on another key three-pointer to get the advantage back out to 63-56 with 1:22 left to play.
- Anderson would get a layup to fall with 40 seconds left to get Maritime to within three points for a second time in the half, but a pair of Barnett free-throws in the closing seconds gave the Knights the final five-point advantage.
- Mount Saint Mary cooled to 37.5-percent shooting in the second half, but went 3-for-7 from three-point range.
- Maritime was held to 34.2-percent shooting after halftime and connected on five three-pointers.
- Mount Saint Mary outscored Maritime 4-0 from the free-throw line in the second frame.
- Figueroa led the Mount with eight second half points.
- Anderson led all scorers with nine points after halftime for Maritime.
For The Knights
- Figueroa led three Knights in double-figures, scoring 13 points on 5-for-8 shooting, including 3-for-4 from downtown. Figueroa finished off a double-double with 10 rebounds and added a career-high six blocked shots.
- Barnett went 5-for-11 from the floor on his way to 12 points.
- R. Graham totaled 10 points, hitting on two three-pointers and going a perfect 4-for-4 from the free-throw line.
- Rivera closed the victory with eight points, two assists and two steals.
- B. Graham posted nine points, three rebounds and a pair of helpers.
- Matthew Walsh (Port Jefferson Station, N.Y.) led the team with three assists and swiped two steals.
For The Privateers
- Donovan led Maritime with 15 points, including the 1,000th tally of his career, to go along with six rebounds and two steals.
- Mitchell scored 12 points, collected four rebounds and secured three steals.
- Noble turned in a strong game with nine points, seven rebounds, three assists and two steals.
- Begovic narrowly missed a double-double with nine points and a game-high 20 rebounds, including nine offensive caroms.
- Anderson led all players with four assists and chipped in nine points.
Game Statistics
- Mount Saint Mary shot 43.6-percent overall, connected on seven three-pointers and went a perfect 10-for-10 from the free-throw line.
- Maritime was held to 36.8-percent shooting overall, 19.4-percent (6-for-31) from three-point range and 36.4-percent (4-for-11) from the free-throw line.
- Mount Saint Mary held slim 22-21 advantage in points off of turnovers.
- Points in the paint were even at 28-28.
- Maritime secured 20 offensive rebounds, leading to a 15-6 edge in second chance scoring.
- The Mount's bench outscored Maritime's 18-6.
- The Privateers doubled up the Knights in transition points, 12-6.
What's Next
- The Knights close the regular season with a trip to USMMA on Saturday.
- Maritime makes the trip to Sarah Lawrence Saturday afternoon.
