Box Score

Purchase, NY (Jan. 7, 2013) – A flying start out of the second-half gate propelled the Purchase College men's basketball team to a 77-66 win over Skyline Conference foe Mount Saint Mary  College Monday night at Purchase. 

The win pushed Purchase's overall record to 9-1 and 3-1 in conference, while MSMC fell to 5-5 overall and 2-2 in the Skyline.

Purchase was led by Andre Nixon (JR/Harlem, NY), who poured in 22 points. He was 5 of 9 from the field overall and 2-for-4 from the three-point arc.  He was also 10 of 11 from the free-throw line.

Also scoring in double figures for Purchase were Craig Davis (SR/Queens, NY) and Amar Reynolds (SR/Bronx, NY), who scored 12 points apiece. Forward David Haughton (JR/Greenburgh, NY) led the Panthers with 10 rebounds, while Davis pulled down six boards.

For the Mount, junior guard Donte Howell led the way with 21 points, while senior Lenny Ragaglia scored 18 points and junior Joe Henain put up 14.

Purchase entered halftime leading by only two, 29-27, after a cold shooting first half by both teams in which Purchase shot at a 31.3 percent rate and Mount Saint Mary at 27.6 percent.

But Purchase came out of the locker room on fire, scoring the first five points of the second half, part of a 15-4 run in the half's first six minutes  to take the score to 44-31. 

The Panther lead was expanded to 19 points (53-36) with 9:38 left in the contest before a full court press got the Knights back in the game.

That press caused a number of Purchase turnovers and sparked by two 3-pointers by Ragaglia, MSMC brought the 19-point deficit all the way down to six at 63-57 with 3:54 to go before a short jumper from Davis and a subsequent jumper by Nixon extended the Purchase lead to 10 with 3:20 to go.

Purchase never looked back from there.

"We started slowly, but we definitely came out with a different focus in the second half," said Purchase head coach Jeff Charney.

Indeed, MSMC's Howell started the game hot, scoring the contest's first six points on two 3s. He scored the first 11 of the Knights' points and went on to score 15 of his team's 27 first-half points. 

Defensively, the Knights were also strong in the first half, picking up three offensive fouls in the game's first nine minutes.
But a half-time adjustment by Charney that focused on more closely guarding Howell did the trick, as he only scored six second-half points.

By game's end, Purchase would post a shooting percentage of 41.7 percent, while holding the Knights to 30.9 percent from the field. The Panthers would out-rebound the Knights 49-36.

Purchase only has one day of practice before hosting SUNY Old Westbury at 7 p.m. on Wednesday night.