Box Score
Brooklyn, Heights, NY - - -St. Francis (NY) junior guard
Akeem Bennet’s trifecta with 1:18 remaining broke a 58-58 deadlock and the Terriers held on for a 63-60 Northeast Conference victory over the Mount St. Mary’s Mountaineers, Thursday evening at the Pope Physical Education Center. St. Francis improved to 8-10 (5-2 NEC) and the Mount fell to 5-13 (2-5 NEC).
The Terriers, who defeated the Mount, 61-58, last Thursday evening in Emmitsburg, Maryland, have now won three consecutive conference games.
St. Francis received double-figure points from four different players and shot an even 50 percent (24-for-48) from the floor in the contest. Bennett (9 rebounds, 6 assists), senior Kayode Ayeni, and freshman Akeem Johnson (career-high) all scored 12 points, while junior Ricky Cadell added 11 points.
After leading for nearly the entire contest, Mount St. Mary’s tied the score at 58-58 with 1:53 left on a 3-pointer by Will Holland from the right wing. But with the shot clock winding down on the next possession, Bennett answered with a game-winning long range bomb of his own from the top of the circle at the 1:18 mark.
The Mount trimmed the deficit to 61-60 with 49 seconds left as Shawn Atupem got inside for a layup. However, the Terriers’ Cadell nailed a clutch jumper from the foul line to restore a 3-point advantage, 63-60, with just 13 ticks on the clock.
The Mount’s Kelly Beidler misfired on a difficult 3-point field goal attempt from the left wing with three seconds left and the Terriers were able to run out the clock.
The Terriers played their finest opening half of the season as they took a 37-26 lead at halftime. It was the first time this season that St. Francis hit the 35-point mark in the opening stanza.
But Mount St. Mary’s outscored the hosts by a 22-11 margin over the first 12:05 of the second half to whittle their deficit down to just three points, 51-48.
Johnson spurred a 6-2 Terriers’ run with a pair of layups to extend their lead to 57-50 at the 6:27 mark. But the visitors scored eight of the next nine points to even the game on Holland’s trey with 1:53 remaining.
Senior guard Jeremy Goode and Atupem each scored 14 points to lead the Mount, who shot 39.6 percent (21-of-53) for the contest.
St. Francis will host Wagner on Saturday at 4:30 pm.