Washington, D.C. (December 21, 2022)—Mount St. Mary's rallied from a double-digit second-half deficit, but came up just short in a 63-62 loss at Howard on Wednesday afternoon.  The Mount's Malik Jefferson had a good look in the lane at the buzzer, but his hook shot came up just short, allowing Howard to escape with the win.

Dakota Leffew led the Mountaineers (5-8) with a career high 23 points while adding six rebounds, five assists and four steals in the game.  Leffew hit 8-of-13 from the field while going 4-of-8 from three-point range in the game.  Xavier Lipscomb added eight points, seven rebounds, five assists and a career-best five steals for the Mount with George Tinsley and Jefferson scoring eight each in the loss.Shy Odom  led Howard (7-8) with 14 points and six rebounds while Elijah Hawkins chipped in 13 points, six assists and three steals. 

Trailing 49-37 with 13 minutes remaining, the Mountaineers rallied to take the lead with a 19-to-6 run.  Leffew scored the first six points of the run for the Mount.  Trailing 56-51, Jedy Cordilia recorded back-to-back baskets to pull the Mount within a point, and Leffew nailed a three with 5:34 remaining to put the Mount ahead, 58-56
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The score remained that way for the next two and a half minutes before a 4-0 Howard run gave the Bison a 60-58 advantage.  Jefferson tied the score with hook shot in the lane with 1:50 left, but the Mount fouled Hawkins on a three-point attempt as the shot clock was expiring on the next possession.  Hawkins missed the first two free throw attempts, but hit the final one for a 61-60 lead.

On the Mount's ensuing possession, a pair of offensive rebounds led to a Lipscomb go-ahead floater with 36 seconds on the clock.  Howard came back on the other end, and Steve Settle III converted a drive to give Howard the 63-62 advantage with 17 seconds left.

On the Mount's final possession, Jalen Benjamin drove the lane, but his potential go-ahead shot was off the mark.  Jefferson forced a tie-up on the rebound with the Mount in control of the possession arrow, setting up the final play.  The Mount inbounded from under the basket with 2.2 seconds left, and found Jefferson in the middle of the paint, but his hook shot missed.

Mount St. Mary's shot 54.2 percent in the second half to finish the contest 26-of-58 (.448) from the floor.  The Mount defense held Howard to 34.4 percent shooting in the second half (11-of-32) and 37.1 percent shooting in the contest.  
In the first half, Howard started the game quickly, jumping out to a 13-to-5 advantage in the opening five minutes behind eight points from Jordan Wood.  Trailing 20-9 at the midpoint of the half, the Mount's Benjamin and Gielen connected on back-to-back threes and Leffew scored in the paint to slice the deficit to 20-17.

The Bison responded with the next six points to build the lead back to nine, but the Mountaineers went on a 12-to-3 run to even the score at 29-29.  Leffew hit a tough jumper from the top of the key and George Tinsley converted a nice pass from Jefferson to cap the run.  Howard's Shy Odom scored on a putback to make it 31-29 Howard at the break.

The Mount shot 13-of-34 (.382) from the field in the opening half, 3-of-8 from three-point range.  Howard shot 40.0 percent (12-of-30) overall and were 5-of-12 from beyond the arc.  The Mount forced Howard into 14 first-half turnovers.
 
The Mountaineers return to Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference play with a pair of games in Western New York, beginning with a 7:00 p.m. matchup at Niagara on Friday, December 30.