Loretto, Pa. (February 12, 2022)—Mezie Offurum scored 14 points while Jaylin Gibson added 13 to help Mount St. Mary's grind out a 54-52 win at Saint Francis U on Saturday afternoon at DeGol Arena. The Mount (12-12, 8-6 NEC) rallied from an eight-point halftime deficit to secure the win.

Trailing 27-19 at the break, the Mount opened the second half with seven consecutive points to cut the deficit to one.  Deandre Thomas started the run with a three-pointer, Offurum added a bucket, and Malik Jefferson closed the run with a dunk to make it 27-26.  The Mount continued to surge, taking the lead at 31-30 after an Offurum jumper.  Mount St. Mary's made it a 19-to-5 run to start the second half when Gibson added a three-point play to put the Mount on top, 38-32, with just over 11 minutes left in the game.

SFU (8-17, 4-10 NEC) closed within two, but Gibson countered with a corner three-pointer to put the Mountaineers on top, 43-38.  Mount St. Mary's took its biggest lead of the game, 50-41, after a pair of free throws with 3:10 on the clock.

The Mount held a 51-45 lead in the final minute before the Red Flash staged a late rally.  Ramiir Dixon-Conover scored on a drive to the basket to make it 51-47.  The Mount got a couple of defensive stops and Gibson was fouled with 12.8 seconds left, hitting 1-of-2 for a five-point lead.  SFU's Marlon Hargis then raced down court, hit the lay-up and was fouled on the play with 8.1 seconds on the clock.  Hargis converted the three-point play to make it 52-50, and SFU immediately fouled Josh Reaves on the inbounds pass.  Reaves calmly sank both free throws to make it 54-50 with 7.8 seconds remaining.  Dixon-Conover made it 54-52 with a lay-up with 2.7 seconds on the clock, and Gibson was fouled with 1.7 seconds left with a chance to clinch the game.  Gibson missed both free throws, but the rebound went off an SFU player, giving the Mount the ball to seal the win.

Offurum was 5-for-10 from the field and 4-of-7 at the line to finish with a game-high 14 points.  Gibson had a strong second half and finished with 13 points, six rebounds and four steals.  Reaves added eight points for the Mount in the win.  Hargis led SFU with 13 points and eight rebounds while Josh Cohen had a double-double of 10 points and 10 boards.

The Mountaineers held SFU to 33.3 percent shooting (17-of-51) in the game, including 26.1 percent (6-of-23) in the second half.  The Mount shot 36.0 percent (18-of-50) in the game and was just 14-of-26 (53.8 percent) at the foul line.  The Mount had a 39-to-37 advantage on the boards.

It was a sluggish first half for the Mountaineers as they were held to 19 points on 6-of-22 (.273) shooting.  The Mount also committed nine first-half turnovers that led to eight Saint Francis points.  The Mount grabbed an early 5-2 advantage behind five points from Jalen Benjamin. SFU rebounded to take a 16-11 advantage before a Reaves three-pointer cut the deficit to 16-14 with 11:33 left in the first half.  The Red Flash then held the Mount scoreless over the next 7:47 to build a nine-point lead.  Reaves connected for his second three-pointer of the half to stop the Mount's scoreless drought.  The Mount was able to score just two more points the rest of the half to fall behind by eight at the break.

With the victory, the Mount remains tied for third place in the Northeast Conference standings with LIU.  The Mount returns home to face St. Francis Brooklyn at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, February 17 at Knott Arena.