Blue Knights Hand Farmingdale First Loss

Mount Saint Mary - 68, Farmingdale State - 43

Newburgh, N.Y. – The Farmingdale State women's basketball team lost their first game of the season as they fell, 68-43, on the road at Mount Saint Mary. The Rams finished the regular season 23-1 overall, 17-1 in the Skyline Conference. The Blue Knights improved to 21-4, 17-1 in the Skyline.

Mount Saint Mary came out firing and used three-pointers from sophomore Amanda Horvers (Kingston, N.Y./Kingston) and senior Catie Biordi (Beacon, N.Y./Beacon) to run out to a 16-6 advantage. Farmingdale crept back to within eight (20-12) at the 6:17 mark, but the Knights answered with a 10-0 run and led 30-12 with 1:16 remaining before the half. Freshman Kate Hartnett (Floral Park, N.Y./Floral Park) closed out the opening twenty minutes with a putback layup to give the Knights a 32-13 cushion.

Farmingdale senior Kimberly Blakney (Brooklyn, N.Y./Benjamin Banneker) brought the Rams back to within 14 in the opening minutes of the second half, but they would get no closer. The Knights pushed their lead to as many as 32 went on to a 68-43 victory.

Senior Shannon Sangster (Syracuse, N.Y.) led Mount Saint Mary with 16 points on 8-of-18 shooting. Biordi had 12 points and 8 rebounds, while Hartnett grabbed a game-high 12 boards to go along with her 7 points.

Blakney, the country's leading scorer, tallied 19 points and 11 rebounds.

Mount Saint Mary set the tone early with their defense. The Knights limited Farmingdale to just three field goals in the first half (3-of-29, 10.3-percent), and continued the pressure in the second. The Rams finished the game shooting just 21.0-percent from the field and 10.5-percent from three.

By virtue of the their first place tie in the Skyline Conference standings, both teams will receive byes in the opening round of the conference tournament next week. The Rams and the Knights will host semifinal games on Thursday, February 25.

Story courtesy of Justin Satkowski at Mount Saint Mary College

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