New Haven, Conn. – The College of Mount Saint Vincent Men's Basketball team ran its season opening winning streak to nine games after a hard fought 88-85 road win at Albertus Magnus on Wednesday night. Senior Alvin Pegues (Brooklyn, N.Y.) led four Dolphins in double-figures with a career-high 28 points.
Mount Saint Vincent opened a nine point lead early on Wednesday after scoring the first nine points of the tilt. The Dolphins would not let the lead slip away before halftime and grabbed a lead as large as 16 points after an Omonya Onwe (Staten Island, N.Y.) bucket with 56 ticks left before the half.
The Dolphins shot a blistering 52.6-percent from the floor in the first half on its way to a 51-36 advantage heading into the locker room. Onwe led all scorers at the break with 13 points, while Pegues chipped in with 11 for the Mount.
Albertus Magnus quickly got back into the game after halftime, using a 12-0 run over the first 3:06 of the period to cut the Dolphins lead to just 51-48. The Mount would jump back out to an eight point lead after a Shaquille Cunningham (Brooklyn, N.Y.) jumper with just under 15 minutes left, but the Falcons used another sustained scoring run to gain their first lead of the night late in the game.
Trailing 57-49 following the Cunningham bucket, the Falcons outscored the Dolphins 29-20 over the next 12 minutes to take a 78-77 lead with 2:33 left in regulation time. Onwe would break an 82-82 tie with 44 seconds left to push the Mount in front for good, as the Dolphins went on to score six of the final eight points of the contest.
Pegues finished off his career night 11-for-23 from the floor and 6-for-8 from the free-throw line. He also added eight assists, which is just one of f of his career-high, and eight rebounds in the winning effort.
Onwe scored better then 20 points for the sixth time this season with 24 on 10-for-14 shooting from the floor. He also grabbed seven rebounds for the Dolphins and swiped a steal. Cody Gauvard (Rockaway, N.Y.) added 16 tallies for the Mount and Cunningham scored in double-figures for the third straight game with 12 points. Gauvard set a career-high with three blocks and posted a team-high two steals.
Overall for the game Mount Saint Vincent shot 47.9-percent from the floor and held the Falcons to just 39.7-percent from the field. Albertus Magnus made eight threes in the game, but went just 19-for-34 from the free-throw line. Ray Askew and Darius Watson led the offensive attack with 24 points apiece.
The win improves Mount Saint Vincent to 9-0 overall on the season heading into its final game of the semester. The Dolphins will be back in action again on Saturday afternoon when they host FDU-Florham. Tip-off with the Devils is slated for 2:00 p.m.