THROGGS NECK, N.Y. – The Maritime Men's Basketball team dropped a Skyline Conference contest to the Mount St. Vincent Dolphins on Saturday afternoon by the score of 66-61 inside the Riesenberg Hall Gymnasium.
 
After allowing 41 points in the opening half, the Privateer defense stood their ground and yielded just 25 points to the Dolphins in the second half. The Dolphins were only able to score three points on the Privateers through the first 8:20 of the second period of play.
 
Offensively, Maritime was led by sophomore John Liccese (Bronx, N.Y./Cardinal Spellman), who fell one point shy of his season-high, ending the game with 25 points, with a team-high five assists on the game. Junior Tim Hoch (Coventry, R.I./Fishers Island (N.Y.)) had a career-high 16 points to go along with three rebounds and a pair of assists.
 
Sophomore Patrick MacDonald (Buffalo, N.Y./Canisius) led the rebounding efforts with nine boards on the matchup, as he added 13 points on the game. Junior Isaiah Hayes (Jamaica, N.Y./Queens Teaching) was second on the team with seven rebounds to go along with seven points.
 
Freshman Michael Walker (Bayport, N.Y./Bayport-Blue Point) collected a pair of assists and two rebounds, while sophomore Akil Spruill (Queens, N.Y./Holy Cross) added one rebounds and one assist in the effort.
 
Maritime started the scoring on the day with a MacDonald layup just 17 seconds into the matchup, Mount St. Vincent scored the next six points to take a four-point lead with 16:28 left in the opening period. MacDonald knocked down a pair of free throws, followed by a layup from Hayes to even the contest at six.
 
Both teams exchanged the lead over the ensuing possessions, with the game tied up at 12 with 12:44 to go in the half. Maritime also answered to tie the game at 15 on a Hoch free throw, and again at 17 with a Liccese jumper.
 
Mount St. Vincent took a nine-point advantage with 5:32 left in the stanza, and added to its lead to take a 41-30 advantage into the halftime break.
 
MacDonald got the scoring going once again in the second half with a layup after a missed Dolphin possession. Junior Brendon Halligan (Durham, N.Y./Cairo-Durham) recorded a steal on the next series, and after a series of misses for both sides, Hoch knocked down a jump shot to make the score 41-34. Hoch knocked down another shot, which was answered, but Liccese responded 15 seconds later with his own jumper in the paint at 12:16.
 
After Mount St. Vincent scored on its next possession, Liccese turned a steal into two points, followed by a jumper from Hoch once again to trim the deficit to four at 46-42. Maritime eventually got it to within thre after Liccese dialed a shot up from long range off a pass from Spruill with 7:57 left in the game to make the score 49-46.
 
Liccese got Maritime within three once again at 51-48 after a jump shot, but that proved to be as close as Maritime could get through the waning minutes of the contest. Mount St. Vincent closed out the final portion of the game with a 15-13 run to keep the Privateers at bay to hang on for the 66-61 win.
 
Maritime (1-10, 1-5 Skyline) will look to get back on track this Tuesday, when the team returns to the site of their buzzer-beating walk-off win from a season ago in Bronxville, N.Y., as the Privateers travel to take on the Gryphons of Sarah Lawrence College at 5:30 p.m.
 
Mount St. Vincent (7-7. 6-3 Skyline) will look for its second-straight win when the team returns home to take on the Purchase Panthers on Tuesday for a 7:30 p.m. tip from the Peter Jay Sharp Center.