ALBANY, N.Y. (Nov. 12,2016) - Fresh off their tussle with Rutgers, Molloy's men's basketball team headed to Albany, N.Y. for The Northeast-10 Challenge at the College of Saint Rose. Despite a hard fought, back-and-forth effort, the Lions came up just short, falling to the host school 74-68. The home team got on the board early, thanks to a good jumper by Tyler Sayre (Garnerville, N.Y.), but Mike Torre (Massapequa, N.Y.) quickly countered with a layup. Nick Corbett (Staten Island, N.Y.) followed up with a three-pointer to give the Lions an early lead. The two teams spent the resulting minutes exhanging jump shots, bringing the score to 17-16 in favor of Saint Rose. The Golden Knights would begin to go on a run, scoring the next six consecutive points, but a layup from Charlie Marquardt (Rockaway Beach, N.Y.) would distrupt the flow. With five and a half minutes remaining in the opening frame, a three-pointer from Anthony Russell (Simsboro, La.) sent the score to 31-20, giving Saint Rose their largest lead of the half. The maroon and white would cut the lead back down to six thanks to a three-pointer by Torre and a jumper from Jaylen Morris (Amherst, N.Y.). The Lions would continue to chip away trying to gain a lead of their own, but would head to the locker room down 34-31. 

Mical-Ryan Boyd (Hempstead, N.Y.) would kick off the second half, sinking a three-pointer nine seconds into play, but Marquardt would answer back for the Lions with four points of his own. The next eight points would belong to the Golden Knights, before Mike Guzzardi (Mount Sinai, N.Y.) sunk both of his shots from the charity stripe to bring the score to 45-37. After an exchange of field goals, a steal from Josh Dennis (Valley Stream, N.Y.) would lead to a dunk from Curtis Jenkins (Farmingdale, N.Y.) for Molloy. Saint Rose would answer with a dunk of their own by Julian Lipinski (Melbourne, Australia). With just over three minutes remaining in the contest, the Lions found themselves down 12. A layup from Guzzardi and a pair of successful free throw attempts by Corbett would cut the score to 66-58. Despite putting together ten points in the final 90 seconds, the Lions would be unable to overcome the deficit, as the contest would end with the scoreboard favoring the Golden Knights 74-68. The Lions fall to 0-2 on the season, while Saint Rose puts a win on the board for their first game of the season. 

The contest featured double-digit performances from four of the five starters for Saint Rose. The Golden Knights also earned 19 points off the bench. Corbett , who went six of 12 from the field and made all five of his foul shots, led all scoring with 20 points for the Lions. Molloy also saw double-digit totals from seniors Morris and Marquardt, who posted 14 and 13 points, respectively. The maroon and white had an impressive 86.7% free throw percentage, and scored nearly half their points in the paint. The Lions will search for their first win of the season on Sunday (Nov. 13) against Le Moyne College at 1:00 p.m.