Steve Morano
After the women’s victory against Canisius on Saturday, Feb. 10, the Mount St. Mary’s men’s basketball team faced No. 1 in the conference standings, Quinnipiac University in the crescendo of a weekend basketball doubleheader at the Mount.
Continuing from a three-game win streak, the feeling around the fanbase was that of apprehension about what the game was going to bring, as they closely beat Manhattan College 82-78 on Thursday, Feb. 8. With the MAAC standing being flipped from what the pre-season coaches poll thought would be the case, the feeling surrounding MAAC basketball everywhere is anyone can beat anyone, and this game is a testament to that.
The first half could not have started better for the Mount as they quickly jumped on Quinnipiac, running up a 10-point lead five minutes into the half.
But an offensively prowess performance by the Mount was matched by a physical man to man press by Quinnipiac as the scoring started to slow. By the end of the half, the Mount was only up by a point as they led 44-43 while having a field-goal percentage of 43% but a 3-point percentage of 60% with senior, Josh Reaves, hitting everything beyond the arc.
When the second half began, it started slowly, as both teams turned the ball over and shots were missed. After Quinnipiac opened a small five-point lead in the early part of the half, the Mountaineers truly turned on the jets as they never looked back as the offense came alive.
In the second half, the Mount shot 64% from the field goal and were very accurate from the free throw line with a percentage of 73%.
The Mount upset No.1 Quinnipiac by a mammoth scoreline of 96-79 in the game of the year so far for Coach Dan Engelstad and his players.
“These are the games that we do all the work for, we had a great environment here and we are playing the top ranked team in the conference, this is why we work.” Engelstad added after the victory. The offense was majorly led by Reaves who added a new personal best in total points in a game with 24.
Other than Reaves, senior, Dakota Leffew had 20 points, sophomore, Dola Adebayo had 10 points, graduate student, George Tinsley had eight rebounds and first-year, Ronald Jessamy helping defensively with five rebounds.
A Mount victory against the leaders in the conference should be a jolt of enthusiasm for not only the players on the team but the students and fans as the Mount extends their winning streak to four games in a season where the standing have been flipped upside down.
And with a quarter of the season left, the Mount is getting hot at the right time to make a run in the conference tournament in March.
With the win against Quinnipiac, the Mount men's team now has the confidence to go out and challenge for the playoffs and add another piece of silverware to the trophy cabinet.
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