Emmitsburg, Md. (December 18, 2021)--A balanced effort paced Mount St. Mary's in a 74-60 win over visiting Morgan State in a non-conference matchup at Knott Arena on Saturday afternoon.  Jalen Benjamin posted a game-high 17 points while Mezie Offurum, Jaylin Gibson and Nana Opoku also reached double figures in the victory.  The Mount improves to 4-8 on the season with the win.

Leading 36-30 at the half, the Mount saw its lead cut to one on a pair of occasions early in the second half, the second coming when Morgan State's Malik Miller scored in transition off a Mount turnover to trim the Mount's advantage to 46-45 with 13:03 left in the game.  The Mount answered Morgan State's early second half momentum with an 18-to-4 run that all but sealed the win.  An Opoku dunk in transition on a feed from Benjamin started deciding run that put the Mount up by 15 with less than eight minutes on the clock.  After the Opoku dunk, Gibson and Benjamin connected on back-to-back triples to stretch the lead to 54-45.  Gibson drained his third three-pointer of the game to push the lead to double figures at 59-47, and after a Miller basket for Morgan State, the Mount capped the run with an Offurum traditional three-point play and a Malik Jefferson hook shot in the paint for a 64-49 advantage with 7:49 remaining.  From there, the Mountaineers cruised to the win.

Benjamin paced the Mount with 17 points and eight assists, hitting 3-of-6 from beyond the arc in the game.  Offurum added 14 points on 6-of-9 shooting while collecting six rebounds.  Gibson was 4-for-5 from the field and 3-of-4 from three-point range en route to 13 points off the bench with Opoku collecting 11 points, six rebounds and five blocks in the win.  Dakota Leffew also had a strong game off the bench with a line of nine points, seven rebounds and six assists while Reaves finished with eight points.  Jefferson grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds in the win. Lagio Grantsaan led Morgan State (4-7) with 13 points while Seven Woods had 11. 

The Mountaineers shot 47.4 percent (27-of-57) from the field in the victory while connecting on 10-of-23 (43.5 percent) from three-point range.  The Mount also held a 44-to-30 edge on the boards and finished with seven blocked shots.  Morgan State shot 42.4 percent (28-of-66) and was held to 3-of-18 (16.7 percent) on three-point attempts.  The Mount did have 19 turnovers in the game that led to 16 Morgan State points.

The Mount (4-8) jumped out to an early 9-4 lead on three three-pointers and then stretched the advantage to 15-6 on an Offurum fast-break bucket just over eight minutes into the game.  The Bears cut the deficit to four, but the Mountaineers answered with an Offurum drive and an Opoku alley-oop dunk on a feed from Benjamin to make it 25-17 with 3:51 left in the opening half.  A Benjamin three-pointer put the Mount on top, 30-24, and from there the teams exchanged baskets with the Mount grabbing a 36-30 lead at the break.

The Mountaineers improve to 8-3 all-time against Morgan State with victories in each of the past two seasons. 

The Mount closes out the non-conference schedule on Wednesday, December 22, when UMBC visits Knott Arena for a 7:00 p.m. tip-off.