Riverdale, N.Y. – Led by 20 points each from seniors Antonio Johnson (Fort Johnson, N.Y.) and James Zuccaro (Gilbert, Ariz.), the College of Mount Saint Vincent Men's Basketball team rallied from a 16 point first half deficit to defeat visiting St. Joseph's-Brooklyn 82-79 and run its season opening winning streak to five games.
 
Mount Saint Vincent found itself in a double digit hole in the early going on Thursday, as the visitors struck for the first 11 points of the contest. Alec Willis keyed the run with a three-pointer and five points as the Bears held the Dolphins without a point until an Ammad Alkhulaidi (Brooklyn, N.Y.) triple just over four minutes into the contest.
 
St. Joseph's would push its lead right back to 11 points on a three-point play from David Louison and later spread the lead to 24-10 on a free-throw from Louison with 9:38 left to play before halftime.
 
Mount Saint Vincent would get the disadvantage under double-figures briefly on a Kyle Beckmann (New City, N.Y.) three-pointer, but saw St. Joseph's take a game-high 35-19 lead on a Vernon Maddox three-point field goal with 6:34 left in the opening half.
 
The Bears would match the 16 point lead with 4:27 left in the half on a Matt O'Neill lay-in before Mount Saint Vincent closed out the frame on an 11-4 spurt to close the gap to 44-35 after 20 minutes of play. Over the closing run, the Bears went 0-for-10 from the floor, while the Mount got seven points from Johnson and a conversion at the horn from Kahlil Shorter (Staten Island, N.Y.).
 
Mount Saint Vincent was held to 37.1-percent shooting in the first half and went 3-for-15 from behind the arc, while the Bears converted on 41.2-percent of their chances and hit on four three-point field goals. Michael Megafu led all scorers at the break with 16 points with Johnson leading the Dolphins with nine tallies.
 
Coming out of halftime, Mount Saint Vincent scored the first 12 points, going 4-for-5 from three-point range, to take its first lead of the game at 47-44 and continued the run to 23-4 to pull in front 58-48 on a Jamir Ferebee (Staten Island, N.Y.) conversion with 13:24 left in regulation. The Dolphins went 6-for-8 from behind the arc over the run, getting nine points from Zuccaro.
 
The Bears would battle back to get to within three points on a O'Neill triple at the midway point of the period, but the Dolphins would methodically spread the lead back to 11 points with a 12-4 spurt covering nearly five minutes. Ferebee led the charge with five points in the run and the Dolphins held the Bears to 1-for-5 shooting.
 
St. Joseph's would string together a final run and slice the Mount Saint Vincent lead to two points on another Louison three-point play and then later to 80-79 on a fourth O'Neill three-pointer with 48 seconds left. Zuccaro would convert inside the give the Dolphins back a three-point lead with 15 ticks remaining and an O'Neill attempt at the horn missed to give the Mount its fifth straight victory.
 
After shooting 37.1-percent in the first half, the Mount hit on 50-percent of its attempts after halftime and shot 58.3-percent from behind the arc. Zuccaro scored 18 points after the break, going 6-for-10 from the field and 3-for-3 from behind the arc to spark the Dolphins.
 
Zuccaro finished the game shooting 7-for-15 overall, adding seven rebounds to his scoring output. Johnson rounded out the night 6-for-12 from the floor and 6-for-8 from the free-throw line on his way to 20 points. He led the team with three assists and a pair of steals.
 
Ferebee came off the bench to give Mount Saint Vincent 12 points on 5-for-9 shooting and Matthew Sowah (Staten Island, N.Y.) added career-highs with nine points and five rebounds. Alkhulaidi closed out a solid all-around night with nine points and a team-high nine rebounds.
 
St. Joseph's got all of its scoring from its five starters, with Megafu leading the way with a game-high 21 points to go along with 17 rebounds. Louison hauled in a game-high 18 rebounds and added 15 points with O'Neill and Maddox contributing 19 and 16 points, respectively.
 
Mount Saint Vincent finished the game shooting 42.6-percent overall and 37-percent from three-point range and closed the game with a key 25-0 advantage in bench scoring.
 
Thursday's win pushes the Mount to 5-0 overall on the season. The Dolphins will return to conference play on Saturday when they welcome Sarah Lawrence to the Peter Jay Sharp Center. Tip-off is scheduled for 1:00 p.m.

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