Bronx, N.Y. – Sophomore George Naldjieff's (Miami, Fla.) tip-in off a missed shot at the buzzer pushed the Mount Saint Vincent Men's Basketball team to a hard fought 70-68 road win at Lehman on Monday night. Naldjieff finished the night with four points and three Dolphins scored in double-figures in the victory.
A hard fought contest throughout, the game never saw a deficit of double digits with the Dolphins jumping in front by eight points with just over seven and a half minutes remaining before halftime. An Alvin Pegues (Brooklyn, N.Y.) layup put the Dolphins in front 22-14 with 7:35 left in the period, but the Lightning quickly answered to knot the score at 23-23 with just over three minutes left in the half. The Dolphins would score two of the final three buckets of the period to carry a 29-27 advantage into halftime.
The Dolphins would be able to hang on to the lead until just passed the midway point of the second half but would never be able to push its advantage over six points. Lehman would take advantage on a Ratique Young layup at the 8:26 mark to take its first lead since the game was 10-8 in the early stages of the first half.
The Lightning would push its lead to as many as three points, but the Dolphins would keep the game within reach as the two teams swapped the lead five times over the final seven minutes of the contest. A Daniel Rock three would put Lehman in front 63-61 with 3:42 left, but the Mount would be able to regain the edge on an Omonya Onwe (Staten Island, N.Y.) bucket with 1:24 left in regulation.
After Young missed one of his two free-throws with 39 seconds left, the game was tied as 66-66. An ensuing turnover by the Dolphins appeared to give Lehman one shot to win the game, but a steal and layup by freshman Chris Bonaventura (Brooklyn, N.Y.) pushed the Dolphins in front by two with 11 ticks left in the contest.
From that point the two teams traded buckets setting up Naldjieff's heroics. After George Nimmons tied the score at 68-68 on a jumper in the lane with five seconds left, Mount Saint Vincent rushed the ball up the floor with Pegues getting a clean look at the rim. The ball hopped off the iron and Naldjieff tipped the ball through as the buzzer sounded to send the Dolphins home with the hard fought road victory.
Naldjieff finished a solid night off the bench with four points and five redounds for the Dolphins, as the Mount bench outscored its opponent's 27-24 on the night. The Dolphins were outrebounded in the tile 50-40, but held the edge in points in the paint 32-30 and second chance points 13-12. Mount Saint Vincent also forced 30 Lehman turnovers and turned those into 23 points.
In their debuts for the Dolphins on Monday, Pegues and Onwe led the team in scoring with 14 points apiece. Onwe netted 12 of his points in the second half and also grabbed six rebounds, while Pegues led the team with five assists. Cody Gauvard (Rockaway, N.Y.) chipped in with 13 points and eight rebounds and Joe Ecock (Brooklyn, N.Y.) netted nine points and hit the Mount's lone three pointer.
Overall the Dolphins shot 38.2-percent from the floor and 63-percent from thee free-throw line. Lehman was better from the floor on Monday at 45.2-percent but really struggled from the stripe going just 8-for-19. Samuel Batista led the Lightning with 17 points and 13 rebounds.
The win is the Mount's second straight over Lehman and pushes it to 1-0 on the season. The Dolphins will be back in action again on Friday night when they take on Mount Ida at the Mitchell Tip-Off Tournament. The contest is set for 8:00 p.m.