SUNY Old Westbury men’s basketball closed out its 2015 calendar year portion of Skyline Conference play at home Saturday afternoon with a hard-fought 76-72 win over the Mount Saint Vincent Dolphins inside Clark Athletic Center.  

With the win, Old Westbury (4-4) improved to 4-1 in the conference standings while sending the Dolphins’ (5-4) league record to 4-2.     

Mount Saint Vincent held its lone lead of the game 1:58 into play off Madison Martinez’s three pointer that gave the Dolphins a 6-5 advantage.  The lead was short lived as Roslyn native Mark Gjonlekaj dropped in two of his eight first-half points to give the Panthers the lead for good (7-6) with 17:18 remaining.  

Gjonlekaj’s three ball later capped a 10-0 run that gave Old Westbury an 11-point cushion (21-10) with 10:22 showing on the first-half clock.  Jose Maestre landed a three pointer to trim Old Westbury’s lead to seven points as the Dolphins trailed 33-26 at the break.  

P.J. Page scored six of Old Westbury’s 12 points to extend the lead to a game-high 16 points (45-29) as part of a 12-3 run to open the second half.  Mount Saint Vincent responded with a 19-6 scoring spree from 12:23 to 5:43 to pull within two points (56-54).  

Jamail Stanley dunked home two of his nine second-half points with 1:24 remaining to extend Old Westbury’s lead to seven points (71-64).  Ammad Alkhulaidi’s layup with 10 seconds remaining capped an 8-2 Dolphin run to make it a one-point game (73-72).  Page would put the game away by sinking 3-of-4 from the line down the stretch to preserve Old Westbury’s win.  

Stanley set career-highs with his 24 point, seven assist and five steal performance.  He added 12 rebounds to collect his third double-double of the season in addition to swatting two shots.  

Gjonlekaj knocked down 4-of-8 from three-point territory to score 16 points while Page added a season-high 16 points.  Stephon Odle chipped in with eight points, four assists and two steals.  

Alkhulaidi paced the Dolphins with 22 points and seven rebounds.  Jamir Ferebee followed with 19 points and Andrew Curiel added 10.  

Old Westbury shot 42.2 percent (27-of-64) from the field while connecting on 32 percent (8-of-25) from three-point territory and 63.6 percent (14-of-22) from the free-throw line. 

For his efforts, Stanley was later named Skyline Conference Player of the Week for games played December 7-13. Stanley opened the week with 18 points (7-of-12 FG, 3-of-3 FT), 11 rebounds, one block and one steal in the Panthers’ 69-52 win at Mount Saint Mary.