Box Score College Park, Md. (November 7, 2023)—Mount St. Mary's battled valiantly before falling at Maryland, 68-53, in the season opener on Tuesday night at the XFINITY Center.
Joshua Reaves paced the Mountaineers with 10 points the Mount's trio of freshmen
Dallas Hobbs,
De'Shayne Montgomery and
Ron Jessamy combined for 24 points in their Mount debuts.
Leading 33-19 at the half, the Terrapins took their biggest lead of the contest, 52-30, midway through the second half. The Mountaineers rallied, trimming the deficit to 59-47 on a Jessamy putback with 3:17 on the clock. Jessamy added a rebound dunk to make it 61-49, and a Reaves bucket made it 63-51 with just under two minutes left, but the Terrapins scored the next five points to secure the win.
Reaves led the Mount with 10 points, hitting 4-of-8 from the field and 2-of-3 from three-point range. The Mount's freshmen were led by Hobbs, who had nine points while Montgomery added eight and Jessamy had seven points and six rebounds in just seven minutes.
Dakota Leffew finished with eight points while
George Tinsley had a team-high seven boards.
Julian Reese led Maryland with 18 points and eight rebounds while Jahmir Young and DeShawn Harris-Smith each had 12 in the win.
Maryland finished the game shooting 49.0 percent from the field while connecting on 3-of-16 (.188) from three-point range. The Mount shot 35.6 percent in the contest, going 2-for-12 (.167) from three-point range.
The Mount defense held strong in the early going, and the Mountaineers pulled within a bucket on a Frantisek Barton lay-up. Maryland responded with an 11-to-2 run to take a 25-14 advantage. After a
Jedy Cordilia jumper, Maryland scored the next four points for a 13-point lead. Reaves connected on a corner triple, but the Terrapins closed the half with the final four points for a 33-19 lead at the break.
Harris-Smith led all scorers with 10 points in the opening half while Reaves led the Mount with five. The Mount was held to 9-of-30 (.300) shooting in the opening half while Maryland connected on 14-of-28 (.500) from the floor.
Maryland holds a 11-0 lead in the all-time series with the Mountaineers.
UP NEXT: The Mountaineers host Coppin State on Saturday, November 11, for the home opener at Knott Arena. Tip-off is set for 4:00 p.m. For tickets, head to
www.mountathletics.com/tickets or contact the Mount Ticket Office at 301-447-5700 (M-F, 10 am – 3 pm).
