March Madness: Mount St. Mary’s Beats American 83-72 in the first four to win the date with No. 1 Duke

Dayton, Ohio (AP)-Duela Adebayo and Jedy Cordilla scored 22 points when Mount St. Mary’s defeated American 83-72 in a confrontation of the NCAA Tournament No. 16 Seeds in the first four on Wednesday night.

The mountaineers (23-12) obtained a date with the sown No. 1 Duke on Friday in a game in the east region in North Carolina.

Geoff Sprouse led the Americans (22-13) with 18 points in six triples from the bank. Elijah Stephens scored 12.

American main scorer Matt Rogers injured his right knee Four minutes in the game.

Rogers tried to play pain, but with 5:28 remaining in the first half he fell to the court, he was helped and did not return. Rogers, who averaged 17 points per game, ended with seven points in eight minutes. He observed the second half from the bank on crutches.

Both teams fired better than 60% and were a combined 8 of 19 from a range of 3 points to the first 10 minutes. Dallas Hobbs beat the bell with a 3 to put Mount St. Mary’s ahead 48-38 in the half time.

Hobbs ended with 17 points.

Mount St. Mary’s lacked the main 3 -point shooters Carmelo Pacheco, who has not played since he broke a finger at the end of the regular season.

But the mountaineers stayed hot from long reach in the second half. The Triple of Malcolm Dread put them ahead 64-51 with 11:26 remaining.

Mount St. Mary improved 3-6 in the NCAA tournament.

It was the 71st meeting between the schools in the Washington DC area. American leads the 37-34 series and had won four meetings in a row.

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