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| Keiran Halton finished with 14 points at Polytechnic. |
The Dolphins held the lead for much of the first seven minutes on Saturday, with an eight point advantage after a Tyler Muer (Goshen, N.Y.) jumper with 14:51 remaining in the half being the biggest lead of that stretch.
Polytechnic answered the Dolphins strong start with a 22-3 run capped by a Anthony Mottola free-throw with just over 9:00 to go in the period to push the Blue Jays out in front 30-19. Mount Saint Vincent would slice the lead to just a single point on another Muer jumper, but the hot shooting Blue Jays would push the lead back to double-figures at 44-34 with 4:13 left in the half.
The Mount Saint Vincent deficit would grow to 14 points late in the half, as Polytechnic out scored the Dolphins 23-13 following the Muer jumper that cut the deficit to one point.
Mount Saint Vincent shot a better percentage from the floor in the first half, converting on 48.6-percent from the floor to 42.5-percent for Polytechnic. Each team knocked down three triples in the opening 20:00, but the big advantage for Polytechnic came at the free-throw line. The Blue Jays converted 20-26 from the charity stripe in the first, while the Mount knocked down just 7-14.
Polytechnic would not trail in the second half and the Blue Jays would not let the Dolphins any closer than 10 points in the half. The Mount deficit reached a game-high 22 points on three occasions in the period.
Overall in the game, the Mount finished with a better shooting percentage than Polytechnic and knocked down 10 threes to Polytechnic’s nine. Polytechnic ended the game with a huge edge in two key categories, out-rebounding the Mount 46-33 and converting 36 free-throws to just 17 for the Dolphins.
The Blue Jays (3-18, 3-11 Skyline) had six players score at least 10 points, including three who finished with at least 20. Arjun Ohri posted a game-high 26 points in the game, while Mottola and Thomas DeMarco finished with 23 and 21, respectively. In two games against the Dolphins this season Ohri has averaged 33.5 points after a 41 point effort in the team’s first meeting.
DiMaggio finished 7-15 shooting from the field and grabbed a team-high six rebounds. Sophomore Dino Johnson (Amsterdam, N.Y.) continued his strong play with a 17 point effort, while Kerian Halton (Manasquan, N.J.) and Joe Cooke (Mount Vernon, N.Y.) each netted 14 for the Mount. Eric Van Tine (Hawthorne, N.J.) come off the bench in the tilt and posted 12 points to go along with four rebounds.
The loss drops Mount Saint Vincent to 11-9 overall on the season and to 9-5 in Skyline Conference play. Next up for the Dolphins is a home date with Yeshiva on February 12. Tip-off at Hayes Gymnasium is slated for 7:00 p.m.
