Albany, NY—The Gators of The Sage Colleges hosted the Knights of Mt. St. Mary College on Thursday night in the Skyline Conference opener for both teams. MSMC posted the 70-64 road win to improve to 2-2 overall and 1-0 in the league, while Sage drops to 2-4 overall and 0-1 in the Skyline Conference.
MSMC took a 33-25 lead into the locker room at the intermission, but the Gators emerged on a run and took their first lead of the game at 15:15, 38-37. There were two lead changes in the second half, but the Knights made the most of their trips to the free throw line making 75.0% of their shots (12-16) and hitting 50.0% from three-point range with three from downtown.
MSMC's junior guard Daniel Wollf (Holstville, NY/Sachem East) finished with a double-double on 14 points with 11 defensive rebounds. Junior forward Gerard Nocera (Holmdel, NJ/Holmdel) added 11 points with eight rebounds and a 5-6 effort from the line. Joining them in double-digit scoring was sophomore guard Connor Bacci (Bayside, NY/St. Francis Prep) with 10 points off the bench with five steals.
For the Gators, junior guard Wayne Weir (Bronx, NY/Samuel Gompers) added 13 points with five rebounds , three assists and two steals, while senior co-captain Marcus Patterson (Bronx, NY/Mount Saint Michael Academy) added 12 points with six rebounds. Senior Davon Sylvester (Bronx, NY/Cardinal Hayes) added six points with six rebounds for Sage.
Now in his eighth season at Sage, Head Coach Brian Barnes is now 99-90 at the helm of the program and will look to garner his 100th career win this week as Sage is back in action on Saturday, December 3 hosting the Kangaroos of SUNY-Canton at 2 p.m. Mt. St. Mary College travels to Purchase College for a Skyline Conference contest on December 3 at noon.
