NEW YORK, N.Y. – Despite falling into a seven-point deficit early in the contest, the Mount Saint Mary College men's basketball team dominated the remainder of the contest and cruised to a 69-48 victory over Yeshiva University in Skyline Conference action on Thursday night. The Knights, now winners of nine in a row, improved to 17-5 overall (15-2 Skyline) in dropping the Maccabees to 4-17 (4-13 Skyline).
With five early turnovers, Mount Saint Mary trailed 17-10 after the game's opening seven minutes. Senior Chris Kingly (Washingtonville, N.Y.) finally got the Knights going with a three-pointer at the 12:03 mark that kicked off a 12-0 run, eventually punctuated by a three-point play from freshman Joe Henain (Benesuef, Egypt).
Leading 26-20 near the four-minute mark, sophomore Lenny Ragaglia (Staten Island, N.Y.) nailed a triple to extend the Mount's advantage to nine. Freshman Donte Howell (Baldwin, N.Y.) would also connect from long range in the closing minutes, continuing an 11-0 run. All told, the Knights closed out the half on a 27-3 run to lead, 37-20, at the break.
After junior Carlos Valdez (Carolina, Puerto Rico) opened the second half scoring with a layup, Yeshiva put together a 6-0 that would bring them to within 13. That would be as close as the Macs would get, however, as the Knights pulled away with back-to-back buckets from freshman Joe Stabach (Staten Island, N.Y.). A Valdez dunk at the 3:07 mark would give the Knights their largest lead of the night at 26 and they would close out the contest with a 21-point margin of victory.
Valdez led all scorers with 15 points and just missed a double-double with nine rebounds. Stabach was the only other Knights to reach double figures with 11 points. Kingly was next at nine points, while senior Tim Morris (Greenwich, N.Y.) pitched in with eight points and seven boards.
Mount Saint Mary held a 38-25 rebounding advantage and shot 43.1-percent from the field. Yeshiva committed 23 turnovers and connected on just 39.5-percent of their field goal attempts.
Still maintaining their hold on first place, the Knights will face a tough slate of Skyline Conference games to close out the schedule. Mount Saint Mary will play fifth-place Mount Saint Vincent, travel to third-place Purchase, and host second-place St. Joseph's, all during the regular season's final week. The Knights will host Mount Saint Vincent on Monday, February 14 in a 7:00 p.m. start at the Kaplan Center.