March Madness: Mount St. Mary’s beats American 83-72 in First Four to earn date with No. 1 Duke

Dola Adebayo and Jedy Cordilla each scored 22 points as Mount St. Mary’s defeated American University 83-72 in an NCAA Tournament matchup of No. 16 seeds at the First Four on Wednesday night.

The Mountaineers (23-12) earned a date with No. 1 seed Duke on Friday in an East Region game at Raleigh, North Carolina.

“Today when we walked out there for the national anthem, it was a little bit of a holy cow moment for me,” Mountaineers coach Donny Lind said. “Now to get to move on with this group and let them keep playing and to go down to Raleigh and play Duke is awesome. We’ve got to get ready and give them everything we’ve got.”

Geoff Sprouse led American (22-13) with 18 points on six 3-pointers off the bench. Elijah Stephens scored 12.

“This is going to hurt for a while, but I’m going to flip the page,” Eagles coach Duane Simpkins said. “We’ve got six very good freshmen coming in, and we’re going to start to develop a game plan of how to get better. We’ll be back.”

American leading scorer Matt Rogers injured his right knee four minutes into the game.

Rogers attempted to play through the pain, but with 5:28 remaining in the first half he fell to the court, was helped off and did not return. Rogers, who averages 17 points per game, finished with seven points in eight minutes. He watched the second half from the bench on crutches.

“Yeah, I feel terrible for him,” Lind said. “His versatility really stood out, and his will. He plays really, really hard. He’s emotional in a great way for their team.”

Both teams were shooting better than 60% and went a combined 8 of 19 from 3-point range through the first 10 minutes. Dallas Hobbs beat the buzzer with a 3 to put Mount St. Mary’s ahead 48-38 at halftime.

Hobbs finished with 17 points.

“I was nervous,” Hobbs said. “It’s safe to say this was the biggest game I’ve played in in my life.”

Mount St. Mary’s was missing leading 3-point shooter Carmelo Pacheco, who hasn’t played since breaking a finger in the regular-season finale.

But the Mountaineers stayed hot from long range in the second half. Malcolm Dread’s 3-pointer put them ahead 64-51 with 11:26 left.

“Obviously, offense was clicking pretty well for us,” Lind said. “But credit to American. They battled the whole time, obviously with losing (Rogers) early, but they showed no letup.”

Mount St. Mary’s improved to 3-6 in the NCAA Tournament. Up next, the ACC champion Blue Devils.

“It means a lot to the university,” Hobbs said. “As far as playing Duke next, our mentality is the same thing, just going in and following the game plan, follow what Coach says, and hopefully go out there and get a win.”

FAMILIAR FOES

It was the 71st meeting between the Washington-area schools. American won the previous four matchups and leads the series 37-34.

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