Emmitsburg, Md. (January 23, 2022)--A strong defensive effort fueled Mount St. Mary's to a 65-50 win over visiting Central Connecticut on Sunday afternoon.  Mezie Offurum posted 14 points and eight rebounds to lead the Mount to its third consecutive victory.

The first half started slowly for both teams with the score tied at 3-3 three minutes into the game.  At that point, the Mount (8-10, 4-4 NEC) took control of the contest, using a 10-0 run over the next four minutes to push the advantage to 13-3.  Offurum started the run by converting an and-one after grabbing an offensive rebound.  Nana Opoku followed with his own traditional three-point play when he was fouled while hitting a floater in the lane.  Offerum converted a bucket in the paint and Dakota Leffew's driving lay-up closed out the run.

Deandre Thomas drained his first three-pointer of the game to make it 18-to-7 with 7:30 left in the half, and the Mount held a 20-10 lead at the final media timeout. Josh Reaves scored on a floater and Opoku slammed home a feed from Offurum to make it 24-10.  After a Jayden Brown bucket, Leffew drained a three with 1:32 left in the half for a 27-12 advantage.  The Blue Devils scored the final four points of the half to make it 27-16 at the break.

Central Connecticut (4-16, 2-6 NEC) cut the deficit to eight, 31-23, early in the second half, but would get no closer the rest of the way.  Leffew and Thomas connected for back-to-back triples to stretch the advantage back to 14 at 37-23.  The Blue Devils cut back into the deficit to make it 43-34, but Offurum answered with his second traditional three-point play on the day and Jaylin Gibson drained a corner three-pointer on a give-and-go from Jalen Benjamin that made it 49-34 with 8:54 on the clock.  The Mount led by double figures the rest of the way to seal the victory.

Offurum, who matched his career high of 22 points on Friday night against Sacred Heart, led the Mount with 14 points and eight rebounds.  He averaged 18.0 points and 6.0 rebounds in the Mount's pair of wins this weekend.  Leffew added 11 points, six rebounds and five assists off the bench in the victory.  It is his fifth double-figure scoring game of the season.  Thomas was the third Mountaineer in double figures, finishing with 10 points and four boards while connecting on all three of his three-point attempts.  Thomas is now shooting 44.0 percent from beyond the arc this season.  Frantisek Barton chipped in a season-high eight points with Opoku and Benjamin each scoring seven in the victory.  Davonte Sweatman was the lone Central Connecticut player in double figures with 12 points.

Defense has keyed the Mount's three-game win streak.  The Mountaineers are holding the opposition to 53.0 points per game, 0.84 points per possession and 37.3 percent shooting from the field over the three-games.  Today, the Mount held Central Connecticut to 38.3 percent shooting from the field, including 7-of-23 (.304) in the opening half that saw the Blue Devils score just 16 points.

Mount St. Mary's is back in action with a road game at Fairleigh Dickinson on Thursday night.  Tip-off is set for 7:00 p.m.