Box Score Emmitsburg, Md. (March 9, 2024)--Mount St. Mary's lost a shootout to visiting Fairfield, 96-92, on Senior Day at Knott Arena on Saturday afternoon in the final game of the regular season. Freshman
De'Shayne Montgomery led the Mount with 24 points while seniors
Dakota Leffew and
Joshua Reaves added 19 and 18 points, respectively.
With today's setback, Mount St. Mary's finishes in eighth place in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference standings with a 9-11 record while posting a 13-18 overall mark. The Mount will be the No. 8 seed in the MAAC Tournament and will face No. 9 seed Canisius in the Opening Round on Tuesday, March 12, at 5:15 p.m. at Jim Whelan Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, N.J. The game will be a rematch of last year's MAAC Opening Round game won by the Mount, 67-66, in overtime. The Mount split this year's season series with the Golden Griffins, winning 74-69 at home on January 5 and falling 61-56 at Canisius on March 1.
Mount St. Mary's had its best offensive half of the season in the first half of today's game. The Mount hit 13-of-19 (.684) from three-point range in the opening half to take a 54-38 lead at the break. The 13 three-point field goals set a new school record for three-pointers made in a half, besting the previous mark of 11 set against UMBC (Feb. 11, 2003) and Central Connecticut (January 6, 2018). Reaves led the way in the first half, hitting 6-of-9 from beyond the arc for 18 points. Leffew added 12 points in the half, connecting on 4-of-6 from beyond the arc. Leading 40-36 with just under five minutes left in the first half, the Mount connected on three consecutive three-pointers kick-start a 14-to-2 run to close the half.
George Tinsley capped the run with a lay-up with 1:00 left, giving him the 1,000th point of his collegiate career. Tinsley is in his second season with the Mountaineers after playing his first three years at Binghamton.
Fairfield (20-11, 14-6 MAAC) opened the second half with a 14-0 run to cut the Mount's advantage to 54-52. The Mountaineers were able to maintain the lead, using consecutive buckets from Montgomery and
Terrell Ard, Jr., to make it 69-63. The Stags answered with a 13-to-3 run to take the lead at 76-72. Mount St. Mary's was able to cut the deficit to 83-82 on an Ard, Jr., three-point play with 2:30 on the clock, but Fairfield's Jalen Leach was fouled on a three-pointer on the next possession, hitting 2-of-3 to make it a four-point lead. Montgomery hit a three with 11 seconds on the clock to pull the Mount within 92-90, but Fairfield's Caleb Field hit two free throws for a four-point lead. Montgomery scored with three seconds left to make it a two-point game again, but Fairfield's Jasper Floyd sealed the win with two free throws with 2.1 seconds on the clock.
Montgomery finished the game with 24 points, seven assists, five rebounds and a pair of steals to lead the Mountaineers in the game. Leffew added 19 poitns, seven assists and a team-high six rebounds while Reaves finished with 18 points.
Dola Adebayo added 10 points off the bench while Ard, Jr., posted nine points and three assists in the loss. Leach led all scorers with 29 points for Fairfield while Goodine chipped in 25 off the bench.
The Mount shot 60.3 percent (35-of-58) from the field in the game, including 15-of-25 (.600) from three-point range. Fairfield shot 47.7 percent (31-of-65) overall, and were 13-of-34 (.382) from beyond the arc. The Stags were 21-of-22 (.955) at the foul line in the game.
