The 16th-seeded Mount St. Mary’s Mountaineers rode a ten-point halftime lead to an 83-72 victory over the American University Eagles for the program’s third all-time win in the Division I NCAA Tournament. With that victory, the Mountaineers now have the honor of facing the number-one-seeded Duke Blue Devils in the Round of 64.
First-year Mount St. Mary’s head coach Donny Lind opened the postgame press conference by talking about how this game felt different than the other ones that the Mountaineers have recently played.
“That was a different game than we’ve played over the course of the last couple of weeks. Obviously, offense was clicking pretty well for us,” he said. “I was really proud of the way we shared the ball today. The way that we were unselfish on the offensive end. When we needed to there, for most of the second half, we were able to lock in and get a bunch of stops.”
Interestingly, sophomore guard Dallas Hobbs refuted his coach’s statement.
“It was flowing, but it felt like any other game, honestly. Yeah, it just felt like any other game,” said Hobbs, who finished with 17 points. “It was a big stage, but I’ve got my brothers with me, so it was easy to go out there.”
Eventually, Hobbs came around and admitted that he enjoyed playing in a March Madness game.
“I was definitely in the moment. I had a lot of fun. It was just fun being out there on that stage,” he said. “Growing up as a basketball player as a kid, this is something that you want to do. The shots just happened to fall tonight. It was very fun.”
Mount St. Mary’s has now won 10 of 12 after knocking off American U. in Dayton.
The Mount puts their hot streak on the line against Duke this Friday in Raleigh. #MarchMadness
— Rocco Miller (@RoccoMiller8) March 20, 2025
Junior forward Dola Adebayo, who matched senior forward Jedy Cordilla with a game-high 22 points, acknowledged how impressive the Mountaineers were in the first half.
“That was crazy. Just to see how the ball was flying around,” he said with a smile. “I’m just proud of how our guys went out there and performed today. It was great.”
“We came with the mentality to just attack and attack, get them in foul trouble, something like that,” Cordilla added. “We just wanted to attack and see what happens.”
When told that he would be coaching against Duke in the NCAA Tournament, coach Lind chuckled.
“I’m really bad at big picture. I’m really bad at thinking through what my career is going to look like,” he said. “Today when we walked out there for the National Anthem, it was a little bit of a ‘holy cow’ moment for me. Now, to get to move on with this group and let them keep playing and go down to Raleigh and play Duke is awesome.”
Mount St. Mary’s will take on the Duke Blue Devils at the Lenovo Center in Raleigh, North Carolina at 2:50 p.m. EST on Friday.
