Emmitsburg, Md. (January 15, 2021)—Deandre Thomas scored a game-high 18 points while Mezie Offurum and Damian Chong Qui each tallied their first career double-double to lead Mount St. Mary's past Merrimack, 63-52, at Knott Arena on Friday afternoon.  The Mount swept the two-game Northeast Conference series to improve to 4-5 overall and 3-2 in the NEC.

In his fourth game with the Mountaineers, Thomas, a junior transfer from Samford, hit 6-of-7 from the field and 5-of-6 from three-point range for his season-high 18-point effort.  Offurum finished with 14 points and a career-best 13 rebounds for his first collegiate double-double while Chong Qui tallied 10 points and a career-high 10 assists for his first career double-double as well.

It is the first time that two Mountaineers have recorded a double-double in the same game since Donald Carey (11 points, 12 assists) and Jonah Antonio (23 points, 10 rebounds) achieved the feat in a win over York College on November 21, 2017.  Chong Qui records the first points-assists double-double for the Mount since Junior Robinson had 20 points and 10 assists in a win at Saint Francis U on January 13, 2018.

The Mount took control of the game early, holding the Warriors (1-3, 1-3 NEC) without a point over the first 5:46 while taking an 8-0 lead.  Merrimack was able to cut the deficit to 10-7 after a Mikey Watkins bucket, but the Mount answered with eight unanswered points for its first double-digit lead of the game at 18-7.  Thomas scored the Mount's final six points of the opening half, including a traditional three-point play with 30 seconds left, to put the Mount ahead, 34-19 at the break.

After Merrimack scored the opening basket of the second half, freshman Josh Reaves went on a personal 9-0 run for the Mountaineers to push the lead to 43-21 with 15:43 remaining.  Reaves finished the game with 12 points, his second consecutive double-digit scoring effort.

Chong Qui connected on a traditional three-point play midway through the second half to give the Mount its biggest lead of the game, 51-26.  Merrimack responded with a 19-to-3 over the next five minutes to make things interesting.  Jordan McKoy's three-pointer capped the spurt to cut the Mount's lead to 54-45.  Leading 56-47, Thomas provided the final key basket of the game, a three-pointer from the left corner on a feed from Chong Qui to push the lead back to double figures at 59-47 with 3:37 left.  From there, the Mount cruised to the win.

The Mount shot 23-of-47 (.489) from the field while hitting 8-of-17 (.471) from three-point range.  The Mount held Merrimack to 18-of-53 (.340) shooting overall.  Over the two-game series, the Mount defense held the Warriors to 54.5 points per game and 34.9 percent shooting from the floor.

Mount St. Mary's travels to Central Connecticut for a two-game series next week.  Tip-off for the first game will be 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, January 21, with the second game of the series to follow on Friday, January 22, at 4:00 p.m.