News Release

Newburgh, NY — Mount Saint Mary College Valiantly Beat Manhattanville 102-81

Mike Hoyt’s opening three-pointer at 18:45 set the Blue Knights ablaze tonight in the Kaplan Center; the game from there belonged to the defending Skyline Conference champions. The Mount Saint Mary Blue Knights crushed the Manhattanville Valiants 102-81, improving their Skyline record to 3-1, 12-2 overall. Mike Hoyt’s hot hand shot 92% from the field finishing with 30 points while shooting 100% from downtown (4-4). Hoyt (Florida, N.Y) also had eight assists and two steals. With eleven seconds left in the half, freshman Chris Harrison (Baldwin, N.Y), who finished with eleven points, split a pair of free throws to give Manhattanville’s Brian Fink the rebound. Fink’s rebound landed in the hands of Mount Saint Mary’s guard Brandon Weldon who converted the steal into a last second lay-up sealing a ten point lead at break. The score at intermission was 48-38.

At the 14:36 mark of the second half, Valiant’s leading scorer Mike Benziger (Sonoma, CA) hit a three to bring the score within five points but the Blue Knights took off from there. J.D Fogarty’s block with 14:12 remaining sent the Blue Knights on a 20-9 run until the Mount called a timeout at 8:59. Manhattanville’s Mike Benziger’s 18 points was no match for the solid shooting of Mount Saint Mary College. Mount Saint Mary College shot 62% from the field and 62.5% from behind the arc.

Brandon Weldon (Elmsford, N.Y), Skyline Conference Honorable Mention Player of the Week, scored 22 points adding four assists and three steals. Julio Ramirez’s (Queens, N.Y) long three with fewer than ten seconds of play pushed the final score over the 100 mark and gave him a total of 15 points. Orange County natives Kieran Begley (Chester, N.Y) and J.D Fogarty (Newburgh, N.Y) added eight points a piece. Sophomore Jason Cardez (Ridgewood, N.Y) made a solid contribution off the bench with eight points shooting 2-3 from three point range.

This victory brings Mount Saint Mary College’s winning streak to seven. The Blue Knights are back in action this Saturday, January 14th against Mount Saint Vincent College. Tip-off is 1:00pm in Riverdale, New York.