Daytona Beach, Fla. – The College of Mount Saint Vincent Men's Basketball team opened the 2012 Daytona Beach Shootout on Wednesday evening with an 80-64 loss at the hands of Concordia (Wis.). Junior
James Zuccaro (Gilbert, Ariz.) led the way with 22 points and a career-high 13 rebounds.
The Dolphins got out to an early lead on Wednesday after a Zuccaro conversion and a three-point field goal from
Stephen Oliver (Brooklyn, N.Y.) pushed them in front 5-2 in the early going.
Mount Saint Vincent led by as many as seven points after Zuccaro buried a three-pointer to move the Mount in front 13-6 with 14:59 left in the opening period.
After building its largest lead of the game, Mount Saint Vincent went a stretch of nine minutes with only three points. Concordia took advantage with an 18-3 run to jump in front 24-16 after a Mark Pace lay-in with 6:04 left in the half.
Anthony Woods would finally break the drought for the Dolphins with a three-pointer at the 5:41 mark, but the Falcons closed the half with an 11-4 spurt to carry a 35-23 lead into the intermission.
Concordia finished the opening period shooting just shy of 42-percent from the floor, while the Dolphins went just 8-for-32 overall in the opening 20 minutes. Mount Saint Vincent converted four three-point field goals in the half, to just a pair for the Falcons.
The Falcons continued their run coming out of halftime, going on a 27-12 stretch over the first eight minutes to take their largest lead of the game at 62-35. Steven Zielinski and Pace combined for 14 points over that stretch for Concordia.
Facing their largest deficit of the night, Mount Saint Vincent rebounded with a 24-9 run to get its disadvantage down to 12 points with 2:46 showing on the clock. Zuccaro accounted for 12 of the points for the Dolphins, including two of his career-high three triples. The 12 points would be as close as the Mount would get the rest of the evening.
Concordia finished with 11 different players in the scoring column and three in double-figures. Pace closed the game with a team-high 19 points on 8-for-13 shooting to go along with eight rebounds. Zielinski finished with 14 points and eight boards and accounted for half of the Falcons' six blocks on the night. Keith Kahlfeldt came off the bench and finished with 10 tallies.
Zuccaro led all players in scoring after going 6-for-17 from the floor and a perfect 3-for-3 from behind the arc. He was also the only player in the game in double-figures on the glass and chipped in two blocks and three steals.
Shaquille Cunningham (Brooklyn, N.Y.) scored in double-figures with 11 points on the strength of a 7-for-10 effort from the free-throw line.
D'Andre McPhatter (Bronx, N.Y.) scored nine points for the Dolphins and blocked a shot and Woods scored six points after going 2-for-4 from behind the arc.
Concordia finished the night with a convincing edge in two categories after outrebounding the Mount 52-21, including 15-10 on the offensive glass, and outscoring the Mount 46-20 in the paint. The Dolphins did force 15 Concordia turnovers leading to a 20-8 edge in points off of miscues.
The loss drops Mount Saint Vincent to 3-6 overall on the season. The Dolphins will look to earn a split in Florida on Thursday when they hook up with Fontbonne. Tip-off at the Ocean Center in Daytona Beach, Fla. is set for 6:00 p.m.
