Patchogue, N.Y.—The St. Joseph's Golden Eagles (3-9, 1-4 Skyline) fell to the Mt. St. Mary Knights (6-5, 3-2 Skyline) at home Wednesday night, 81-58.
The Eagles came out of the gate strong leading 11-6 five minutes into the first half. The Knights tied the game at 14 with ten minutes left in the half however and took the lead with two made free throws less than a minute later. The game would tie again at 7:35 for the last time at 22.
Mt. St. Mary then slowly began to break away from the Eagles, taking advantage of St. Joseph's mistakes, making free throws and shooting well from the outside. By halftime the Knights had gained a solid lead with the scoreboard reading 41-28.
Evan Mohammad (Bayside, N.Y./ Holy Cross) was the first to score in the second half—sinking a three-point jumper off of an assist from Phil Calixte (Amityville, N.Y./ Holy Trinity)—followed shortly after by Keith Anderson's (Central Islip, N.Y./ North Babylon) two made free throws. These efforts gave the Eagles some momentum as they slowly began to chip away at the gap; Cody Lohsen (Centereach, N.Y./ Centereach) knocked down a three-pointer at 13:14 to make it a two-point game at 52-50.
The Knight's, comprised of several strong outside shooters, caught their breath in the closing minutes of the game however, regaining the ten-point lead they had maintained for most of the game and building upon it.
Despite the loss, the Eagles put up some solid numbers; Calixte led the team with 14 points and seven rebounds while Sean McCarthy (Kings Park, N.Y./ Kings Park) sunk 12 points and grabbed five rebounds. Mohammad, who was perfect from the foul line, came away with ten points and six rebounds while Lohsen had ten points and eight rebounds. The team shot 31.2% from the field and 73.3% from the foul line.
Mount Saint Mary's Joe Henain hit on 8-of-11 from the field for a game-high 21 points. His seven blocks were a career-high. Joe Stabach added 11 points and seven boards, while Chris Pisciotta contributed 11 points and six boards. Donte Howell also reached double figures with 11 points.
The Golden Eagles will take to their home court again on Saturday at 5:15 in an attempt to grab their second Skyline Conference win against Mt. St. Vincent (5-7, 2-3 Skyline).