Lewisburg, Pa. (November 22, 2014)—Gregory Graves and Kristijan Krajina each scored 16 points as Mount St. Mary's defeated Bucknell, 73-69, on Saturday night at Sojka Pavilion.  The Mountaineers made a string of solid plays down the stretch to earn the victory.

Trailing 64-63 with just under four minutes left, Khalid Nwandu converted on a drive to put the Mountaineers (1-2) ahead by one.  After a pair of Bucknell free throws, Krajina converted back-to-back buckets in the paint to push the Mount advantage to 69-66.  Chris Hass then hit a pair of free throws to cut the Mount lead to one, and after a stop on defense, Bucknell had a chance to take the lead.

The Mount defense held strong, with Byron Ashe collecting a tough rebound after a Dom Hoffman missed jumper with 35 seconds on the clock.  Ashe hit 1-of-2 at the line for a 70-68 lead.  Bucknell's D.J. MacLeay was then fouled with 16 seconds left with a chance to tie the game.  McLeay hit the first, but was off the mark on the second shot, with Taylor Danaher corralling a strong rebound with 14.4 seconds.

Danaher was fouled immediately, and he calmly drained both free throws to push the lead to 72-69.  The Bison had a chance to tie, but MacLeay's three-pointer from the top of the key was an airball, giving the Mount the ball with 1.3 seconds left.  Junior Robinson was fouled immediately, and hit 1-of-2 at the line to seal the win.

Krajina matched his career high of 16 points while pulling down six rebounds in the win.  He hit 7-of-13 from the field in the game.  Graves finished with 16 points, seven rebounds and three steals, missing his career high by one point.  Ashe added 10 points with Nwandu chipping in nine clutch points off the bench in the win.  Robinson added seven points and a pair of assists while Danaher finished with six points and four boards.

Hass led Bucknell (1-3) with 17 points while Hoffman had 14 in the loss.

Mount St. Mary's shot 50.0 percent (28-of-56) from the floor and outrebounded the Bison, 31-24, in the game.  Bucknell shot 54.3 percent (25-of-46) from the field in the loss.

After scoring just 11 points in the first half of Wednesday's 53-41 loss to Maryland-Eastern Shore, the Mount broke out to a 14-8 lead in the opening five minutes against Bucknell.   Graves scored six points to pace the Mount to the early lead.

After stretching the lead to 17-10 on a Krajina three-pointer, Bucknell scored the next seven points to even the score.  Buckets from Nwandu and Chris Wray stopped the run, but the Bison continued to surge, grabbing a 27-26 advantage on a Nana Foulland lay-up with 7:02 left in the half.

Krajina converted back-to-back baskets to regain the lead for the Mount, but six straight Bucknell points put the Bison ahead 33-30.  Bucknell stretched the lead to 41-36 at the half.

Bucknell shot 63.0 percent (17-of-27) from the floor in the first half while the Mount converted 50.0 percent (15-of-30).

Mount St. Mary's visits Wake Forest on Wednesday, November 26, for a 7:00 p.m. matchup.  The game will be shown live on ESPN3.

Game Notes:  Bucknell holds a 12-10 lead in the all-time series with the Mountaineers, but the Mount has won the past two matchups…Mount St. Mary's held a 21-to-8 advantage on the boards in the second half and had 15 second-chance points in the game.