Visiting Mount St. Mary's took an early lead and never relinquished for the 75-68 win against the Fairleigh Dickinson University men's basketball team on Saturday night. The Knights fall to 6-18 on the season, including a 5-8 mark in Northeast Conference action, while the Mountaineers improve to 14-10 overall with a 9-4 record in league play.
Sean Baptiste (North Brunswick, NJ/St. Josephs of Metuchen) (North Brunswick, NJ) led the Knights with 27 points, his eighth game this season with 20 or more points, while Cameron Tyler (Jamaica, NY/Notre Dame Prep (MA)) (Jamaica, NY) notched a double-double, giving the Knights 10 points while recording a new career-high, dishing out 11 assists.
Baptiste is averaging 19.1 ppg in conference games to lead the league and Tyler is first in the NEC as well, averaging 6.46 assists per game in conference tilts.
Alvin Mofunanya (Englewood, NJ/Dwight Morrow) (Englewood, NJ) led the team on the boards with a game-high nine rebounds. Kamil Svrdlik (Prerov, Czech Republic/Gymnazium Zlin) (Prerov, Czech Republic) and Terence Grier (Cranford, NJ/St. Thomas More Prep) (Cranford, NJ) each added 11 points.
Mount St. Mary's scored the first 11 points of the contest, with five coming from Jeremy Goode (Charlotte, NC), holding the Knights scoreless until Mofunanya sank the second of two free throws with 14:41 on the clock.
Grier netted the Knights' first field goal of the game from three-point range. Baptiste connected on a trey before Svrdlik put in a long two-pointer to make it 15-9, but the Mountaineers scored the next six points to take a double-digit lead.
With less than four minutes to go, Baptiste put in his third three of the game in as many attempts to cut the Mountaineers' lead to 30-19. The Knights were able to force turnover on the defensive end, leading to a tip-in from Svrdlik.
Baptiste's put-back with two minutes remaining in the half helped shrink the deficit to seven, 30-23, and Tyler fed John Galvin (Weston, CT/Weston) (Weston, CT) under the basket to cap a 9-0 run by the Knights, making it 30-25 with 1:18 remaining in the first frame.
Markus Mitchell (Virginia Beach, VA) connected on a lay-up with 45 seconds on the left to give the Mountaineers a 32-25 edge heading into the break.
Baptiste led all scorers with 11 points, while Goode led the Mount with nine points. The two teams were almost even on shooting percentage (FDU 42 percent- MSM 43 percent), but Mount St. Mary's forced twice as many turnovers (12-6). The Mount out-scored FDU in the paint, 20-8.
The Knights came out of halftime quickly as Mofunanya sank a lay-up and Tyler converted a steal into a bucket on the other end, making it a three-point game, 32-29, with 18:45 remaining.
The Mount out-scored the Knights, 7-1, over the next two minutes to widen the gap, 39-30. Tyler's behind-the-back pass to Grier for a lay-in made it 39-32, but Mount staged a 15-5 spurt, capped by a shot from behind the arc by Goode.
Grier and Baptiste had back-to-back jumpers to cut Mount St. Mary's lead down to single digits, 54-45, but the Mountaineers were able to push it back up, 63-50, with
4:24 left to play.
Baptiste sank a jumper and after Svrdlik was able to swipe the ball, Baptiste hit a fadeaway just inside the arc to make it a 63-54 game.
Baptiste connected on a pair from the line after Tyler grabbed an offensive rebound and put it into the net as the Knights cut the margin down to eight, 66-58, with 1:07 remaining.
Jean Cajou (Fairfax, VA) connected on two from the charity stripe, but Grier fed Mofunanya for a dunk and after forcing a Mount turnover, Tyler netted a jumper to make it 73-66 with 21 seconds to go. Svrdlik sank both of his free throws with 13 seconds on the clock to make the final score 75-68.
Kelly Beidler (Virginia Beach, VA) led the Mount with 22 points, while Goode added 18 and Cajou had 14.
The Knights shot 53 percent for the night while holding Mount St. Mary's to 46 percent. The Mountaineers held a 36-28 advantage on the boards.
“Starting the game 11 points down to a good team is hard,” said Head Coach Tom Green. “We had 20 turnovers and we let them get 20 offensive rebounds and while we shot 52 percent, they had 12 more shots than we did.”
“I told the guys after the game that I thought we played as hard as we can,” said Green. “I don't think we could get any more work or effort into the game. We need to put that kind of effort into the next couple of games.”
The Knights are back in action at Central Conn. on Feb. 12 at 7:00 p.m. The game will be televised live on MSG.
