The SUNY Old Westbury men’s basketball team survived a late rally by the Mount Saint Mary Knights on Saturday to earn a 61-53 Skyline Conference road win from Kaplan Center in Newburgh. With the win, Old Westbury (9-13) sweeps the season series with the Knights to climb to 9-6 in conference play, while sending Mount Saint Mary’s (7-16) league record to 6-10.
Reynaldo Walters made his second-career start and led the Panthers with 17 points, four assists and a career-high four steals. Floyd Leroy and Mark Gjonlekaj each followed with 10 points. Leroy nabbed four steals (tied career-high) to go with six rebounds while Gjonlekaj racked up eight rebounds, two blocks and one steal. Omari Trebuse added eight points and four assists.
Gerard Nocera poured in a game-high 21 points to pace Mount Saint Mary. Daniel Wolff and Stephen Steyer followed with 10 points apiece as Tyler McDine dished out a game-high nine assists to go with four steals.
Gjonlekaj connected on a three ball to open the scoring, giving Old Westbury an early 3-0 lead. Old Westbury would then commit four turnovers during a stretch which saw Mount Saint Mary take a seven-point lead off a 12-2 run. Old Westbury countered with a 14-3 run to grab a 19-15 lead which gave the Panthers the lead for good. Old Westbury’s first-half lead reached nine points and took a 32-23 edge into the break.
Mount Saint Mary scored three points to open the second half to slice its deficit to six points, 32-26, with 18:44 left. Old Westbury quickly responded with nine unanswered points to go up by 15 points. Trebuse and Gjonlekaj combined to connect on back-to-back three pointers to extend Old Westbury’s lead to 19 points with 11:54 showing on the second-half clock.
Mount Saint Mary cut the deficit down to four points off a 21-6 run to make it a 55-51 game with 4:06 remaining. Kaleem Edwards’ jumper at 3:30 ended Mount Saint Mary’s run to give Old Westbury a 57-51 lead. Edwards then netted a free throw at 2:14 to put Old Westbury up 58-51.
Mount Saint Mary went cold down the stretch, misfiring on six-straight field goal attempts as Old Westbury hit on 3-of-4 from the free-throw line over the final 2:32 to secure the 61-53 victory.
Courtesy of Old Westbury Sports Information
