Mount St. Mary’s rallied past Miami in overtime Saturday for one of the biggest men’s basketball wins in school history.
The visiting Mountaineers beat the Hurricanes 78-74, marking their first win over a major-conference opponent since they beat Georgia Tech, also of the Atlantic Coast Conference, 71-69 on Dec. 18, 1995 at Atlanta’s Omni.
Terrell Ard Jr. finished with 18 points, and Dola Adebayo recorded his second career double-double (10 points, 11 rebounds) for Mount St. Mary’s, which improved to 8-4 under first-year coach Donny Lind.
That’s the Mountaineers best start since going 11-1 to start the 1996-97 season. It also marked their seventh non-conference win of the season, which is the most since they became a Division I program in the 1988-89 season.
Mount St. Mary’s shot 50 percent from the field, while holding Miami to 40 percent shooting.
The Hurricanes (4-8) have lost eight of nine overall. Matthew Cleveland led the way for them with 19 points.
Adebayo’s hook shot with just under three minutes left in overtime gave the Mount the lead for good at 72-70. Xavier Lipscomb added a free throw and Javon Ervin hit a pair to make it 75-70 with 51 seconds on the clock.
Miami was able to trim the deficit to 76-74 with 6.9 seconds remaining on a pair of free throws from Jalil Bethea. The Mount’s Carmelo Pacheco was fouled with 5.5 seconds left, and he hit both to seal the victory.
Ard Jr. matched his career high in scoring, while adding seven rebounds, two assists and two steals.
Pacheco hit 4-of-8 from 3-point range on the way to a 16-point game. while Jedy Cordilia added 11 points and six boards. Ervin was the fifth Mountaineer in double figures with 10 points.
The Mountaineers were playing without their leading scorer, sophomore guard Dallas Hobbs.
They rallied from a 10-point halftime deficit to take a 66-64 lead on an Ervin drive with two minutes left in regulation.
Bethea’s drive with 1:25 left for Miami evened the score at 66-66. Neither team was able to score in the last minute to force the overtime.
The Mountaineers jumped out to an 8-2 lead behind a pair of Pacheco 3-pointers.
The Hurricanes responded with a 16-to-5 run to grab a five-point lead, but another Pacheco 3-pointer and an Adebayo bucket evened the score at 18-18.
Miami answered by scoring the next 10 points and held that 10-point margin, 38-28, at the half.
This marked the second all-time meeting between the schools and first in 58 years. Miami beat the Mount 86-83 on Dec. 8, 1966 at the Baltimore Civic Center.
The Mountaineers will aim for their third consecutive victory when they close out their non-conference schedule next Saturday with a 2 p.m. game at George Mason.
