Box Score Brooklyn, N.Y. (March 2, 2016)---Mount St. Mary's rallied from a 14-point second-half deficit to defeat St. Francis Brooklyn, 60-51, in the Northeast Conference Tournament Quarterfinals on Wednesday night at the Pope Physical Education Center. BK Ashe (Washington, D.C.) paced the Mount with 18 points, and he finished the night with 1,000 career points on the nose.
Trailing 38-24 after a Tyreek Jewell lay-up with 17:10 left in the second half, the Mount rallied to secure the win. Gregory Graves (Sterling, Va.) Hit a jumper, and after a turnover, Ashe followed with a bucket to cut the deficit to 10. After another Jewell lay-up, Will Miller (Dallas, Texas) hit back-to-back three-pointers to make the score 42-34.
Elijah Long (Mississauga, Ont.) then scored in the paint, and Taylor Danaher (Fredericksburg, Va.) converted a traditional three-point play to make it 42-39 with 11:51 left. Ashe then drilled a three-pointer to cap an 11-0 Mount run to tie the game.
The Terriers answered with an Amdy Fall basket, but the Mount countered with back-to-back buckets from Ashe to take the lead, 46-44. Danaher added a free throw, and Charles Glover (Bowie, Md.) stretched the advantage to 49-44 with a drive with 6:15 on the clock.
St. Francis (15-17) cut the gap to 49-48 on a Jewell three-pointer with 4:26 left, but the Mount scored the next seven points to stretch the lead to 55-48. Ashe scored the first four points of the run while Long added two free throws with 1:33 left.
Yunus Hopkinson banked in a long three-point for St. Francis Brooklyn on the next possession, but the Mount was able to salt the game away at the free throw line.
Ashe led the Mount with 18 points, seven rebounds and four assists. His free throw with 32 seconds left in the game gives him 1,000 career points. Ashe is the 46th player in Mount history to reach the 1,000-point plateau.
Long added 11 points and four rebounds, Danaher nine points and five boards and Graves eight points and seven rebounds in the win.
Hopkinson led St. Francis Brooklyn with 18 points while Jewell added 12 points.
The Mount shot 32.8 percent in the game and was 3-of-16 (.188) from three-point range. The Mount, however, was even on the boards and had just three turnovers compared to 16 by the Terriers.
St. Francis Brooklyn shot 39.6 percent overall, but was just 7-of-28 (.250) in the second half.
The Mount (14-18) got off to a quick start, taking a 10-2 lead four minutes into the game. Wray and Graves each had baskets on offensive rebounds to give the Mount a 4-0 advantage. Graves capped the early run with a fast-break dunk.
Trailing 11-4, Hopkinson shot the Terriers right back into the game. Hopkinson hit three three-point baskets, the last giving St. Francis a 17-12 advantage with 9:01 left in the opening half.
After the Mount cut the deficit to 19-16 on an Ashe lay-up, the Terriers stretched the lead to nine with six consecutive points. A Dagur Jonsson lay-up gave St. Francis its biggest lead of the half at 29-18. The Mount answered with a 6-2 run, but Gunnar Olafsson hit a three-pointer from the left corner at the first half buzzer to give St. Francis a 34-24 lead at the half.
The Mount hit just 10-of-37 (.270) from the field in the first half, including 0-of-8 from three-point range. St. Francis shot 12-of-23 (.522) overall and was 4-of-5 (.800) from beyond the arc. The Mount had eight offensive rebounds in the first half, and committed just two turnovers.
The Mount advances to the NEC Tournament semifinals on Saturday, March 5. The Mount travels to #2 seed Fairleigh Dickinson for a 2:00 p.m. tip-off.
Game Notes: The Mount improves to 5-1 on the road in the NEC Tournament under head coach Jamion Christian…The Mount is 5-0 all-time against St. Francis Brooklyn in the NEC Tournament.
