Emmitsburg, Md. (February 24, 2023)--Mount St. Mary's battled league-leading Iona tough, but the Gaels were able to pull out an 80-68 win at Knott Arena on Friday night.  Jalen Benjamin scored 27 points to lead the Mount, which was playing before a sellout home crowd of 3,121. 

Mount St. Mary's (10-19, 6-12 MAAC) started the game quickly, jumping out to a 5-0 lead behind a Deandre Thomas drive and a Benjamin three-pointer.  After an Iona basket, Malik Jefferson scored in the paint and Thomas drained a triple for a 10-2 advantage.  The Gaels fought back, cutting the Mount's advantage to 13-12 on a Nelly Junior Joseph basket.  The Mount countered with a 15-to-6 spurt to take a double-digit lead, 28-18, forcing an Iona timeout with eight minutes left in the opening half.

After the timeout, the Gaels rattled off the next nine points with Daniss Jenkins scoring the final six to make it 28-27.  Thomas converted a drive and Jaylin Gibson hit a jumper to put the Mount ahead, 32-27.  The Mount was able to maintain the five-point lead at the half, taking a 36-31 advantage to the locker room.

Thomas paced the Mount with nine first-half points while Benjamin and Jefferson each added eight.  Jenkins led all scorers in the half with 10 points.  The Mount shot 48.3 percent in the opening 20 minutes, including 3-of-7 (.429) from three-point range.  Iona shot 11-of-30 (.367) from the field in the half, and was just 1-of-11 (.091) from beyond the arc.

The Gaels (21-7, 14-3 MAAC) started the second half quickly, using a 9-to-2 run to grab a 40-38 lead.  The next few minutes saw the lead seesaw back and forth with Benjamin knocking down a three-pointer from the left corner to put the Mount ahead, 50-49, with 12:31 left in the game.  Iona responded with back-to-back three-pointers from Osborn Shema and Walter Clayton Jr. to take a 55-50 lead.  After Benjamin hit a pair of free throws, Jenkins hit a three and Clayton Jr. a pull-up jumper to give Iona a 60-52 advantage with 7:58 left.  Benjamin scored the next four points, all at the free throw line, to slice the deficit in half, but Clayton Jr. converted a traditional three-point play to push Iona's lead back to seven.

The Mount fell behind by nine before back-to-back baskets from Jefferson made it 67-62.  Jedy Cordilia hit a pair of free throws with 3:39 remaining to cut Iona's lead to 69-64, but Iona scored the next seven points, capped by a Shema three from the right corner with 1:39 left, for a 76-64 lead.  From there, the Gaels were able to close out the win.

Benjamin finished the game 6-of-11 from the field, 2-of-4 from three-point range, and 11-of-12 at the line for his team-high 27 points.  Benjamin has scored 20 or more points in three of the past four games, and this was his seventh 20-point game of the year.  Benjamin is averaging 21.3 points over his past four games.  Thomas added 12 points for the Mount while Jefferson had 12 points and a team-high seven rebounds.  Clayton Jr. scored 20 of his game-high 28 points in the second half to fuel the Gaels in the win.  Jenkins tallied 15 points, Shema 14 points and eight boards, and Joseph 11 points and six rebounds for Iona in the win.

The Mount finished the game shooting 44.9 percent overall and 4-of-13 (.308) from three-point range.  The Mountaineers were 20-of-23 (.870) at the foul line.  Iona shot 46.7 percent in the game, but were 5-of-22 (.227) on three-point attempts.  The Gaels were 19-of-21 (.905) at the line in the game while holding a 40-22 rebound advantage.

The Mount closes out the regular season with a pair of road games beginning with a 2:00 p.m. game at Rider on Sunday, February 26.

Notes:  The game was the first sellout at the Mount since the 2017 Northeast Conference Championship game won by the Mount over Saint Francis U, 71-61...Iona holds a 4-1 lead in the all-time series...This was the first-ever meeting between the two teams in Emmitsburg.