DAYTON, Ohio — Dola Adebayo and Jedy Cordilia each scored 22 points as Mount St. Mary’s defeated American 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.
Geoff Sprouse led American (22-13) with 18 points on six 3-pointers off the bench. Elijah Stephens scored 12.
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 and was helped off; he 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 with crutches.
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.
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.
Mount St. Mary improved to 3-6 in the NCAA tournament.
It was the 71st meeting between the Washington, D.C.-area schools. American leads the series 37-34 and had won four meetings in a row.
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