Emmitsburg, Md. (November 27, 2021)--Mount St. Mary's struggled to find its offense in a 67-40 home loss to Navy on Saturday afternoon at Knott Arena.  Malik Jefferson paced the Mount with nine points and nine rebounds in the game.

The Mount (2-5) was unable to recover from a slow start in the game as the Midshipmen (5-2) broke out to a 14-2 lead in the opening six and a half minutes.   Josh Reaves hit a three-pointer for the Mount's first field goal of the game, but the cold spell stretch to the Mount missing 14 of its first 15 shots on the day.  The Mount had its best stretch to get back into the game with Jefferson scoring in the paint, Mezie Offurum on a floating jumper in the lane, and Jalen Benjamin a pull-up on the fast break to complete a 9-0 run to make it 14-11 midway through the opening half.

Navy answered the Mount run by scoring the next eight points to regain a double-digit advantage, and stretched the lead to 28-to-15 before Benjamin hit three free throws to make it 28-18 with 3:42 left in the opening half.  Navy held the Mount off the scoreboard the rest of the way while John Carter, Jr., scored the final five points of the half for a 33-to-18 lead at the break.

Offurum scored the Mount's first four points of the second half, the final two on a pair of free throws to cut the deficit to 35-22.  Navy scored the next seven points to take a 20-point lead, and held a 52=26 lead with 10 minutes left.

Jefferson was 3-for-6 from the field and 3-of-4 at the foul line for his team-high nine points while adding a game-high nine rebounds in the game.  Offurum added eight points (4-for-4 FT's) while Benjamin had six points, four rebounds and three assists.  Carter, Jr., led Navy with 18 points while Greg Summers had 11 points, eight rebounds and five assists.  The Mount was held to 23.4 percent shooting (11-of-47) in the game, including 2-of-20 (11.1 percent) from three-point range.

Mount St. Mary's returns to action by hosting Howard on Tuesday, November 30, at 7:00 p.m. at Knott Arena.