Newburgh, NY (Feb. 17, 2016) – Men's basketball took control of the fifth seed Wednesday night at Mount Saint Mary, spoiling the Knights' Senior Night in an 84-77 road win.

Purchase (12-12, 10-9 Skyline Conference) has one game remaining on the regular-season schedule, when the Panthers travel to Yeshiva Saturday night. The winner of that game will likely determine the final seeding, with Purchase – at this moment – either traveling to face No. 3 Farmingdale State or No. 4 Yeshiva in the opening round of the playoffs. The tournament begins Tuesday night.

Nicholas Jackson (SR/Brooklyn, NY) paced the Panthers with 22 points off the bench, leading three Purchase players in double-figures. Taylor Foster (SR/Greenburgh, NY) closed a strong night with 12 points, eight rebounds and six assists. The Panthers finished the game shooting 56.9-percent from the floor.

MSMC's Gerard Nocera matched his career-high with 24 points and Jason Oder equaled his season-high with nine tallies.

Tightly contested throughout, the game featured seven ties and 12 lead changes with 10 of the lead changes coming after halftime. After falling behind by 10 points in the middle stages of the first half, the Mount rallied to knot the score at 28-28 on a Connor Bacci conversion with 3:49 left before halftime and went into the intermission trailing 37-35 following an Oder triple in the final seconds of the first half.

The Knights shot 42.4-percent from the floor prior to halftime and knocked down a pair of 3-pointers. Nocera came off the bench to lead all scorers at the break with 10 points after going a perfect 4-for-4 from the floor and connecting on each of his two free-throw attempts.

Mount would take its first lead since 6-4 on a Connor Nicholson 3 with 14:52 left in regulation time and would not trail again until a Foster conversion with 11:14 left to play.

The Foster bucket started a string of eight straight possessions in which the lead changed before the Mount used a 6-0 spurt to pull in front 64-59 on a Daniel Wolff 3 with just over seven minutes left in the contest.

Purchase erased the deficit with five straight points, but would not pull in front again until a Jose Reyes (SR/Bronx, NY) triple at the 4:58 mark of the second half.

The Reyes bucket would give the Panthers the lead for good in the game and Jackson hit back-to-back threes to push Purchase in front 75-69 with 2:32 left.

Purchase shot 69.2-percent from the floor in the second half and got 14 points from Jackson, who went 5 of 6 from the field and 3 of 4 from behind the arc. The Panthers hit four triples in the second half and outscored the Knights 26-16 in the paint after halftime.

-MSMC Sports Information Contributed to this report