Tim Williams had 15 points in 15 minutes against Mount Saint Mary.

HOBOKEN, N.J. (January 7, 2006) – Mount Saint Mary College senior Brandon Weldon (Elmsford, N.Y.) scored 21 first-half points, and junior Mike Hoyt (Florida, N.Y.) added 19 points after halftime in leading the Blue Knights to a 93-73 victory over Stevens Institute of Technology on Saturday afternoon at Canavan Arena.  The Ducks have lost four games in a row and fall to 5-5 on the season, including 1-1 in the Skyline Conference.  MSMC captured its fifth straight victory while improving to 10-2 (2-1 Skyline).

Trailing by 11 points following a three-pointer by Mount Saint Mary senior Julio Ramirez (Queens, N.Y.) early in the second half, Stevens began to chip away at the Blue Knights’ lead.  The Ducks were able to claw their way back to within three points at 55-52 on a three-pointer by freshman Damien Palantino (Philadelphia, Pa.) with 13:27 remaining.  Unfortunately for Stevens, that would be the closest it would come the rest of the way.

In the final 10 minutes, the Blue Knights put the game out of reach with a 19-4 run in the span of 4:13 to claim an 82-61 advantage with 4:15 to play.  Hoyt and Ramirez were instrumental in the decisive burst as they combined for 13 points.

Stevens received a team-high 15 points from junior Tim Williams (Selden, N.Y.) in the loss.  Williams was 6-for-7 from the floor, but he was limited to just 15 minutes of playing time due to heavy foul trouble.  In fact, Williams was tagged with two offensive fouls in the first 1:31 of the game and went to the bench for the remainder of the half.

Sophomore Waleed Farid (Woodside, N.Y.) finished with 14 points despite only shooting 4-for-13 from the floor.  Palantino added 13 points on four three-pointers.  Sophomore Joseph Ayodele (Tempe, Ariz.) came off the bench to register a double-double (12 points, 12 rebounds).

Mount Saint Mary had three players top the 20-point mark.  Weldon was unstoppable in the first half and finished with 28 points on 12-for-18 shooting.  Hoyt, who entered the game as the Skyline Conference’s leading scorer, shook off a sub-par first half in which he was held without a field goal to score 22 points.  Hoyt, who was 11-for-12 at the foul line, also had seven assists and four steals.  Ramirez connected on 6-of-8 shots from the field for 21 points to go along with nine rebounds and four assists.  Ramirez was 3-for-5 from downtown and 6-of-9 at the line.

The Blue Knights, who are the defending Skyline Conference champion, shot 50.9 percent from the floor for the game while holding Stevens to 37.0 percent shooting.  Mount Saint Mary also forced the Ducks into 25 turnovers.

After falling behind by four points with just over 12 minutes remaining in the first half, Stevens used a 12-0 run in the span of 2:49 to take a 26-18 lead.  Palantino started things for the Ducks with a three-pointer.  Four straight points by Farid and another three-pointer from Palantino gave Stevens a six-point cushion.  Ayodele capped the run with a tip-in off a miss by Palantino.

Mount Saint Mary responded with a 14-2 run over the next four minutes to take a 32-28 lead with less than five minutes to go in the half.  Weldon began the run with a jumper.  Following single free throws by Ramirez and Hoyt, Weldon scored the next six points to knot the score at 28-all.  Hoyt gave the Blue Knights the lead with a pair of free throws.  Senior Kieran Begley (Chester, N.Y.) converted on a lay-up to finish off the run.

Following a basket by Ayodele, MSMC scored the next seven points of the game to go up by nine late in the half.  Weldon had six of the points for the Blue Knights in the run.  Mount Saint Mary went into intermission with a 39-31 advantage.

Stevens will be back in action on Monday when the Ducks host Hunter College at 7 p.m.