PURCHASE, NY – On Saturday afternoon, the Maritime College men's basketball team opened its Skyline Conference schedule by visiting Purchase.  In a back-and-forth contest that featured seven ties and five lead changes, Maritime had the ball last and a chance to win with five seconds left.  The Privateers (3-5, 0-1 Skyline) were unable to get a shot off, though, and the Panthers (5-3, 1-1 Skyline) came away with a 57-56 victory at Purchase College Gymnasium.

Purchase led by as many as eight points in the second half, but Maritime battled back to tie it at 52-52 on Tyler Anderson's (Smithtown, NY) three-pointer with 3:25 remaining.  Rob Guilday (Wallingford, PA) then gave the Privateers a 54-52 lead with his layup at the 2:14 mark.  After the Panthers regained a two-point advantage, Anderson sank a pair of foul shots to make it a 56-56 game with 32 seconds left.

The Panthers ran the clock down to six seconds before Matthew Phillips was fouled.  He made the first free throw, but missed the second, which went out of bounds to Maritime.  The Privateers couldn't find an open look, however, and ran out of time.

Anderson finished with a game-high 15 points to pace Maritime.  He also distributed three assists.  Theo Noble (Bronx, NY) had 12 points and six rebounds, while Ryan Donovan (New Salem, NY) added 12 points of his own.  Robbie Mitchell (Richmond, NY) pulled down six boards, and Aleksandar Begovic (Kotor, Montenegro) contributed three assists and three steals.  As a team, the Privateers shot 35.1 percent (20-of-57) from the floor, but were just 4-for-18 (22.2 percent) from three-point land and 12-for-19 (63.2 percent) at the charity stripe.

After Purchase took an early 7-4 lead, Maritime rattled off seven straight points to go ahead 11-7.  The Panthers scored the next four points to tie it at 11-11, but the Privateers responded with a 7-0 run to open up an 18-11 advantage with 8:27 left in the first half.  Purchase closed out the half on a 12-5 spurt, though, and the teams headed into the locker room knotted at 23-23.

Maritime started the second half with buckets by Donovan and Anderson to regain the four-point edge, 27-23.  However, after Noble hit two free throws to make it 29-25, Purchase went on a 9-0 rally to go ahead 34-29.  The Panthers' cushion reached a game-high eight points at 40-32 midway through the second half.

For Purchase, Phillips had a double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds.  Trey Skeete recorded a team-best 13 points to go along with nine boards, three assists and three steals.  Isaac Johnson, meanwhile, tallied 11 points.  The Panthers shot a combined 34 percent (18-of-53) from the field, 23.8 percent (5-of-21) from downtown, and 69.6 percent (16-of-23) at the free throw line.

Up next for the Privateers is a 7 p.m. matchup at Manhattanville (5-3, 0-1 Skyline) on Wednesday.  It will be the last of three straight road games for Maritime.