Mount St. Mary’s gets on its hands and knees to fight for first MAAC title

Mount St. Mary’s celebrates MAAC championship, first for program in its third year in conference and first NCAA Tournament berth since 2021. (Photo by Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference)

By Ethan Hurwitz (@HurwitzSports)

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — Right when Mount St. Mary’s started to make the second half run that catapulted the Mountaineers to their first MAAC championship in program history, head coach Donny Lind left his bench and ran to Iona’s.

Then, he got on his hands and knees to wipe the sweat off the floor. It wasn’t the exact moment the Mountaineers won the game, but it was pretty damn close.

“He cares as much as we do,” junior guard Arlandus Keyes said.

“That’s a regular thing at this point,” redshirt junior forward Dola Adebayo said. “He’s been doing that every time he gets a chance. He’s a players’ coach, he’s like our foundation, like our rock.”

“We see the effort and what he puts into it every day,” sophomore guard Dallas Hobbs said. “It’s easy to play for a guy like him, like we’ll run through a wall for him.”

The sixth-seeded Mount team — one that couldn’t have gotten less hype as a true contender heading into the tournament — became one with its heart, a team willing to do the dirty work to win it all. A group of guys who grabbed 37 rebounds and forced 16 turnovers to hoist the trophy. A team that wanted to win it for its head coach.

“It’s all about the players and their willingness to do hard stuff,” Lind said. “It’s hard to be a good defensive team, and in order to get them to want to do things like that, you’ve gotta have a relationship outside of the two hours a day that you’re coaching on the court.”

The Mountaineers’ 63-49 crowning victory over Iona Saturday night started slow. The Gaels’ backcourt of senior Dejour Reaves and freshman Adam Njie, as was the case all week, controlled the tempo and pace of play. A fast start by the Gaels, compounded by struggles by The Mount to get inside, was conducive for yet another Iona championship.

But multiple stretches where the Gaels weren’t able to get a shot to fall, including allowing runs of nine and 12 points, took the wind out their sails. Sure, they had played three games in three days, but so did Mount St. Mary’s.

“We didn’t look like we had any juice, right?,” Iona head coach Tobin Anderson said. “I think it’s hard. And you know how it is, human nature, you beat the best. You beat the number one team last night, probably relaxed a little bit. We got our ass beat.”

Even missing an elite 3-point shooter in sophomore guard Carmelo Pacheco, the Mountaineers drilled 12 threes in the game where at one point, it was tough to get any offense going. The trio of Keyes, Adebayo and Hobbs combined for 10 of those makes (and 47 points overall) to punch The Mount’s ticket into the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2021.

“We’re gonna enjoy this one, that’s for sure,” Lind said. “There’s people outside of our program sometimes who think of Mount as little old Mount Saint Mary's. You know, we were in the NEC. We haven’t been in the league for very long, and once you’re a part of the mountain community, you realize there’s nothing small-time about what we do.”

Now atop the mountaintop is The Mount. And it got there because the players followed their coach, the same one who wiped sweat off the floor with the trophy hanging in the balance.