EMMITSBURG,
Md. – Mount St. Mary’s men’s basketball
team won its first Division I NCAA tournament game with a
69-60 win over Coppin State on Mar. 18.
Coppin
State was ahead the first half of the game, but the Mount
took control during the second half. Jeremy Goode, a 5-foot
9-inch sophomore guard, scored 21 points—including
four three throws in the final 27 seconds--to lead the Mountaineers
to victory. When Coppin State went five minutes without
scoring, the Mountaineers took on a decisive lead at the
end.
With
the win in Dayton, Ohio, the Mount advances to face North
Carolina, the top-seed team in the tournament, for the first-round
game. That game will be in Raleigh, N.C. on Mar. 21. If
the Mountaineers can win that game, they will make history.
A 16th seed team has never beaten a No. 1 seed team, according
to the Associated Press.
This
is the third time that the team has played in the NCAA tournament
since becoming a Division I school in 1988-89 and the first
under Coach Milan Brown. In its previous appearances in
1995 and 1999, the team lost its first round game. However,
as a Division II school, the Mount won a national championship
in 1962 under Coach Jim Phelan.
The
Mount earned its place in the competition when the team
beat Sacred Heart 68-55 to win the Northeast Conference
Championship on March 12. The win over Coppin State gives
the Mount a 19-14 record this season, including a streak
of six wins so far.
Sixty-four
teams compete in the first-round of the NCAA tournament,
but 65 teams actually earn spots in the competition. Two
teams from smaller conferences—this year it was the
Mount and Coppin State—play a prelimary game to win
the 64th spot in the NCAA competition.
