ALBANY, N.Y. – The Maritime men's basketball team dropped a road conference contest to the Sage Gators on Thursday evening by the score of 78-67 from Kahl Gym in New York's State Capital.
 
Maritime was led by rookie John Liccese (Bronx, N.Y./Cardinal Spellman), who finished the game with 16 points and six rebounds, while leading the team with six assists. Freshman Patrick MacDonald(Buffalo, N.Y./Canisius) poured in 14 points and also ripped down six boards. Sophomore Isaiah Hayes (Jamaica, N.Y./Queens Teaching)fell one rebound shy of a double-double as he added 10 points on the offensive side of the ball.
 
Sophomore Brendon Halligan (Durham, N.Y./Cairo-Durham) added nine points, while senior T'Vaughn Gibson (Freeport, Bahamas/Sunland Baptist Academy) and sophomore Tim Hoch (Coventry, R.I./Fishers Island (N.Y.)) each added six points each. Senior Sean Corley (Harlem, N.Y./Thurgood Marshall Academy) was tied with Liccese for the team lead in assists with six.
 
The games first basket came with 57 seconds gone by as Halligan got the scoring started with a layup. Sage tied the game, and then took a 5-2 lead following a three-pointer. Halligan then stepped back off a pass from Liccese to even the game at five with 2:36 gone by in the period. The Gators then rolled out an 11-point lead as Maritime was unable to answer the shots by Sage.
 
MacDonald ended the drought with a layup to trim the deficit to single-digits. After Sage took a 27-10 lead, Hoch knocked down a three-pointer, followed by a Hayes layup, the Gators added two more at the line to take a 29-15 lead, but Maritime continued to fight back.
 
Following a basket by MacDonald, Liccese then came back down the floor with a layup to pull Maritime within 10 at 29-19. Sage continued to keep Maritime at arm's length and took a 39-26 lead into the halftime break.
 
After adding a pair of free throws to start the period, Sage took a 41-26 lead. Hayes then answered with a layup for the first bucket of the second half for the Privateers. The Privateers went on a quick seven-point run as Liccese stepped back for a three-pointer, followed by baskets by both MacDonald and Liccese again to make the score 43-35.
 
The Gators took their largest lead of the half at 18 points as the lead was increased to 67-49 with 6:40 to go in regulation. MacDonald got yet another Privateer rally going with a layup off a pass from Corley, Hoch then stepped back for another three-pointer, followed by a free throw from Hayes to trim the lead to 12.
 
Several possessions later, Hayes connected on another layup then sophomore Bobby Parlow (Bay Head, N.J./Point Pleasant Beach) added a pair from the charity stripe. The lead was cut down to 10 at 71-61 following a Naseer Stevenson(Bronx, N.Y./Cardinal Spellman) layup with 3:10 left in the period. The Privateers were unable to trim the lead any further as the Gators emerged victorious with a 78-67 win.
 
Maritime (5-15, 3-10 Skyline) will resume conference play on Saturday afternoon when the team plays host to the Sarah Lawrence Gryphons at the Riesenberg Hall Gymnasium, live stats and live video of the game will be available at MaritimeAthletics.com.
 
Sage (16-4, 10-3 Skyline) will continue its stay at home with a contest against the St. Joseph's (LI) Golden Eagles from Kahl Gym at 3 p.m.