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The Mountaineers Keep Climbing With Mount Saint Mary's Downing American In Dayton

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Basketball

Mount St. Mary's men's basketball is moving on in the NCAA Tournament after defeating American in the First Four, 83-72, Wednesday at the University of Dayton Arena.

The contest turned into a match between the Mount's dominant presence inside and American's ability to hit from long distance. The inside game won out, with the duo of Jedy Cordilia and Dola Adebayo in the limelight. Both matched their career highs with 22 points apiece. Cordilia went 10-for-11 from the floor, and Adebayo was 9-for-15.

Dallas Hobbs added 17 points in a 6-for-12 shooting effort, with four shots coming from downtown. Arlandus Keyes continued his postseason presence with 10 points and earned a game high eight rebounds.

As a team, the Mount registered its best offensive efficiency output of the season, shooting 57.7 percent from the field (30-for-52).

A total of 109 shots went up in a fast-paced contest, beginning from the jump. Xavier Lipscomb's pull up and make from three-point range seconds into the match set the tone. By the first media timeout, the Mount and Eagles combined for 25 points with the Mountaineers up 15-10. American would go on an 8-0 run to grab a slim 18-15 advantage, but Hobbs snatched the lead back on a three-pointer at the 20-18 mark. To close out the first half, Mount St. Mary's had a pair of gradual climbs, capped off with another Hobbs triple to lead 48-38 at the break.

In the second half, American would push the deficit halfway before the Mount established the lead with a 12-0 run. Keyes began the run with a three pointer, which was followed by another triple from Malcolm Dread. Adebayo hit two inside shots – including a dunk – that brought the lead up to 68-51. The game hovered around the 15-point margin until the Eagles made a run that forced a Mount timeout at 81-70. Keyes hit two foul shots off an American technical, and defensive stops by the Mountaineers finished off the contest from there.

Mount St. Mary's picks up their third NCAA Tournament win, all of which have come in Dayton. The 2008 team defeated Coppin State, and the 2017 team defeated New Orleans.
 
For the first round matchup, the Mount will face Duke, the No. 1 seed from the East Region. The Blue Devils come into the tournament with a 31-3 record. Mount enters the game looking for their second straight win over an Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) squad, with their most recent game against the league ending in a 78-74 overtime win over Miami.
 
Tip-off for the First Round game is Friday, March 21 at 2:50 p.m. from Lenovo Center in Raleigh, North Carolina. CBS provides coverage of the contest.
 
NOTES

  • Donny Lind now has the most wins for a Mount coach in his first season at the helm. Mount St. Mary's has 23 victories this season, one more than Jim Phelan in his first year of 1954-55. That season the Mount went 22-3. The Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) Championship win sealed the highest number of Division I wins in a season for the program.
  • The 20-plus point efforts from Cordilia and Adebayo marks the first instance of two players registering 20 or more in the same game since the opening round of the 2024 MAAC Tournament (De'Shayne Montgomery – 26; Dakota Leffew – 23)
  • Mount went 14-for-17 from the charity stripe (.824), its fifth best effort of the season.
  • In the all-time series, the Mountaineers now trail the Eagles 37-34. Wednesday's game served as the first postseason game between the squads since the 1961 Mason Dixon Conference Championship game, a 59-57 overtime win for the Mount.
  • Mount St. Mary's and Duke will face each other for the first time Friday.