Anthony Passalcqua had 21 points at Mount Saint Mary on Saturday.

NEWBURGH, N.Y. (February 17, 2007) – Mount Saint Mary College senior guard Mike Hoyt (Florida, N.Y.) poured in a game-high 57 points on 16-for-31 shooting from the floor in leading the Blue Knights to a 95-77 win over Stevens Institute of Technology on Saturday at the Kaplan Center in Newburgh, N.Y.  The loss snapped the Ducks’ school-best win streak at 11 games and prevented Stevens from clinching its first-ever Skyline Conference regular-season title.

Sophomore guard Anthony Passalacqua (Staten Island, N.Y.) led the Ducks (20-5, 13-3 Skyline) with 21 points on 6-for-8 shooting.  He added eight rebounds and two assists.  Junior guard Waleed Farid (Woodside, N.Y.) scored 19 points.  Senior forward Michael Collins (Bronx, N.Y.) and sophomore guard Virgil Gray II (Elmwood Park, N.J.) totaled 11 points apiece.  Senior guard Floyd Morris (East Windsor, N.J.) chipped in with 10 points and three assists.

Mount Saint Mary (9-16, 6-10 Skyline) received a solid effort out of sophomore center Chris Harrison (Baldwin, N.Y.), who had 14 points and 14 rebounds.  Hoyt, who surpassed the 2,500-point plateau in the first minute of the contest, knocked down seven three-pointers and was 18-for-18 from the foul line.  He also had six assists for the Blue Knights.

Neither team was able to take control in the first half as the opening 20-minutes featured seven ties.  The biggest lead in the first half was four points by each team.  Hoyt scored 21 first-half points and made three three-pointers.  Passalacqua had 17 of his 21 points before intermission.  Farid added 10 points in the opening stanza as the Ducks led 38-36 at the break.

With Stevens leading 50-49 with just over 11 minutes to go in the game, Harrison scored on a lay-up to give the Mount the lead for good.  That basket keyed an 11-2 run over a three-minute stretch in which MSMC built a 60-52 lead with 8:18 left on the clock.

The Ducks worked their way back into the game and closed to within 75-71 on a lay-up by Gray with 3:25 to play.  Following a timeout by the Blue Knights, Hoyt drained a game-changing three-pointer that started a 20-6 run to close out the game over the final 3:08.  Hoyt had 11 of his team’s final 20 points.

Saturday’s loss dropped Stevens to second place in the Skyline Conference – meaning that the Ducks will now host seventh-seeded Yeshiva University in a quarterfinal game on Tuesday at 8 p.m.  That contest will be carried live at www.duckcast.com.