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| Junior Eric Lastres was one of three Dolphins in double-figures against Maritime. |
Mount Saint Vincent never trailed in the contest and jumped out to a 10 point lead at 14-4 with 13:51 left in the first half on jumper from DiMaggio. After a 12-4 run by the Privateers sliced the lead to 18-16, Mount Saint Vincent responded with a 17-3 spurt to pull ahead by 16 points with just under five minutes remaining before the intermission. Maritime would get back to within 10 points with 2:35 left in the half before a jumper and a pair of lay-ups from Matias Roibal (Boonton, NJ) gave the Mount a 43-27 edge at the half.
The Dolphins shot an even 50-percent (18-36) from the field in the opening stanza with DiMaggio leading all scorers with 11 points at the break on 5-9 shooting. Cooke finished the half with 10 points for the Mount who held Maritime to 35.5-percent shooting in the frame.
Mount Saint Vincent got off to a sluggish start in the second half, as it scored just four points in the first 5:11 of the period. Maritime used an 18-4 run during that stretch to pull within six points with 14:49 left in regulation.
The Dolphins would not be able to pull away from the Privateers in the half and with 6:25 left Tim Dougherty canned a three-pointer to knot the score at 61-61. The Dolphins quickly responded with back-to-back buckets from Cooke and Patrick Panetta (Ridgefield Park, NY) and then pushed the lead back to double-figures at 74-63 on a pair of Panetta free-throws with 3:25 left.
Maritime (4-4, 2-2 Skyline) would get its deficit back to just two points on free-throws from Andre Cooper but would run out of time. DiMaggio sunk two from the charity stripe with 20 seconds remaining to send the Mount to the four point victory.
Mount Saint Vincent shot 48.3-percent from the field in the contest, but just 30-percent (6-20) from three-point range. The defense held Maritime to 43.5-percent shooting and forced 12 Privateer turnovers which it turned into 20 points.
Cooke led all scorers with his 24 points on 10-20 shooting from the floor. He also grabbed a pair of rebounds and finished with an assist. Lastres continued his solid junior campaign by going 6-7 from the field and 3-5 from the charity stripe on his way to 15 points. He also grabbed four rebounds and added an assist. DiMaggio chipped in four boards and a team-high four assists to go along with his 14 point effort.
Panetta had a solid outing off the bench for the Dolphins, finishing the contest with seven points, four rebounds and three assists in a season-high 17 minutes. Roibal chipped in with five rebounds on the night, while rookie Keiran Halton (Manasquan, NJ) finished with a team-high seven rebounds to go along with two assists, a block and a steal.
Maritime was led by Cooper who finished with 20 points and a game-high eight rebounds. Jermelle Fraser and Rahshawn Pringle finished the night with 13 and 10 points respectively.
The win pushes Mount Saint Vincent back over the .500 mark at 6-5 and moves the Dolphins to 4-1 in league play. Next up for Brian Nigro’s squad is a date with Polytechnic and his brother Dan on January 10. Tip-off with the Blue Jays is set for 1:00 p.m. at Hayes Gymnasium.
