Brooklyn, N.Y. – Sophomores Andrea Sinaly (Middle Village, N.Y.) and Kayla Giordano (Mount Vernon, N.Y.) each posted career-highs with 19 and 13 points respectively, but the College of Mount Saint Vincent Women's Basketball team couldn't hold off St. Joseph's-Brooklyn on Thursday and fell on the road by a score of 72-70.
 
The two teams would go back-and-forth for the better part of the contest as the tilt featured 11 ties and five lead changes. After falling behind by a score of 23-21 with 7:16 to play in the first half, the Dolphins would run off eight straight points keyed by six points from Giordano to open their largest lead of the frame at 29-23.
 
Mount Saint Vincent would hang on to the lead and match its largest advantage of the half after two Brittany Griffin (Suffern, N.Y.) free-throws with 1:45 to play before the break before St. Joseph's closed the stanza with the final six tallies to send the teams to the intermission tied at 35-35.
 
Sinaly and Giordano had a strong opening 20 minutes, each scoring 10 points to lead the Dolphins who shot just under 39-percent from the floor in the first half. Griffin also played a strong first half and chipped in with six points to go along with six rebounds.
 
Mount Saint Vincent would come out of the locker room and get back-to-back jumpers from Sinaly and Tanisha Montague (Brooklyn, N.Y.) to grab a four point advantage in the opening 1:15 of the second half.
 
After a Janine Doran bucket for the Lady Bears knotted the score for the ninth time in the game, the Mount responded with a 12-4 spurt to open a 51-43 lead with 15:08 left in regulation time. The Dolphins would expand their lead to a game-high 12 points following a Sarah Kluth (Lynbrook, N.Y.) free-throw with 7:31 remaining in the contest.
 
After the Lady Bears cut their deficit to seven points after a Megan Moran basket, the Dolphins quickly responded with a lay-in from Griffin and a free-throw from Sinaly to nudge the lead back to double-figures at 68-58 with just over four minutes left to play.
 
Trailing by 10, St. Joseph's used a 12-0 run over a three-plus minute stretch to pull in front 70-68 with less then a minute to play. Griffin would tie the score for the 11^th time of the night with a jumper at the 19 second mark, but the deciding tallies came from Doran on a pair of free-throws with four seconds left on the clock.
 
Despite shooting over 42-percent from the floor in the second half, the Dolphins went just 3-for-8 from the free-throw line after halftime with the Lady Bears converting 15 of their 21 attempts after the break. Overall in the game, Mount Saint Vincent was outscored at the stripe 22-9.
 
For the game, the Mount shot 41.1-percent from the floor, but just 52.9-percent (9-for-17) from the free-throw line. The Mount also turned the ball over 28 times, leading to 24 Lady Bear tallies.
 
Sinaly finished the game with career-highs in points, rebounds, field goals, field goals attempted and matched her career mark in assists. She finished the night 9-for-21 from the floor on her way to a team-high 19 points and also grabbed eight boards and handed out four assists. She also collected three steals for the Dolphins.
 
Giordano also had a career-high for the Dolphins after totaling 13 points on 5-for-9 shooting. She also totaled a rebound, an assist and a steal on the night for the Mount. Griffin scored in double-figures for the fifth straight game and matched her season-high with 12 points on Thursday. She also grabbed nine rebounds for the Dolphins.
 
Kluth matched her career-high in two categories against St. Joseph's after hauling in a game-high 16 rebounds and handing out a game-high seven assists. She also swiped three steals. Kara McNish (Hawthorne, N.J.) finished the night with 12 boards for the Dolphins.
 
The Lady Bears received a game-high 26 points from Ashley McQuillan who also recorded a game-high six steals. Doran and Moran finished the night with 14 and 11 points respectively, while Kristin Binkes finished with a team-high 10 rebounds.
 
The loss drops Mount Saint Vincent to 3-5 overall on the season heading into Saturday's league contest with Farmingdale St. The Dolphins will host the Rams at 1:00 p.m. on January 7.