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Canisius University Athletics

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Tana Kopa drives to the basket in a home game against Brown on Nov. 23, 2024.
Anthony Militello
73
Winner Mount St. Mary's MSM 15-10,8-6 MAAC
66
Canisius Canis 2-23,2-12 MAAC
Winner
Mount St. Mary's MSM
15-10,8-6 MAAC
73
Final
66
Canisius Canis
2-23,2-12 MAAC
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 F
Mount St. Mary's MSM 32 41 73
Canisius Canis 28 38 66

Game Recap: Men's Basketball |

Mount St. Mary’s Late Run Downs Men’s Basketball

The visiting Mount St. Mary's Mountaineers used a 15-2 run over a span of 3:34 in the late stages of the second half to earn a 73-66 road win over Canisius in MAAC men's basketball action Sunday afternoon at the Koessler Athletic Center.
 
The win improved Mount St. Mary's to 15-10 overall and 8-6 in MAAC play, while the Golden Griffins fell to 2-23 overall and 2-12 in league games with their seventh-straight loss.
 
Canisius junior Paul McMillan IV led all scorers with a game-high 21 points, his 15th game this season with 20-or more points scored, and he was also credited with a team-high four assists while recording two steals on the day. Senior Tana Kopa added 19 points after he hit five 3-pointers, and he also recorded a season-high four steals to go along with three assists. Junior Gianni Thompson was good for nine points, three assists and a blocked shot in the losing cause, as the Blue and Gold shot 39.7 percent from the field, made 13-of-31 chances from 3-point land and connected on 7-of-8 tries from the free-throw line.
 
For Mount St. Mary's, Arlandus Keyes came off the bench and scored 14 of his team-high 17 points in the second half for the Mount, which earned its first program victory at the Koessler Athletic Center with the win. Jedy Cordilia scored 14 points, Dallas Hobbs added 10 points and Terrell Ard Jr., posted a game-high 12 rebounds as the Mountaineers out-rebounded the Griffs by a 40-24 clip. For the day, Mount St. Mary's shot 50 percent from the floor, hit 10-of-23 3-point tries and went 13-for-18 (72.2 percent) from the free-throw line.
 
A 3-point field goal by McMillan IV, one of his three makes from long range on the day, with 6:24 left on the clock put the Griffs ahead 56-53. On their ensuing possession, the Mountaineers tied the game at 56-56 thanks to a 3-point make by Keyes, and the Mount took the lead for good moments later after Cordilia took a pass from teammate Carmelo Pacheco on the fast-break for a lay-up to make the score 58-56 in favor of the visiting team.
 
A pair of makes from the free-throw line by Keyes with 5:01 left gave the Mount a four-point cushion at 60-56, and just 52 seconds later, Keys extended the Mount St. Mary's lead to nine after he drilled a 3-pointer from the corner off an assist with Hobbs. Canisius answered and made it a seven-point game with 2:55 remaining after redshirt-sophomore Cam Palesse grabbed an offensive rebound and scored in the paint, but moments later, Hobbs found Keyes in the corner again for another 3-pointer, one of Keyes' five triples on the day, to extend the Mount St. Mary's lead back to 10 at 68-58 with 2:29 left.
 
McMillan IV kept Canisius in the game late, as his team-leading 21st traditional 3-point play of the season got the Griffs with five points at 71-66 with 33 seconds left on the clock. Canisius forced a turnover on the ensuing in-bounds play and had a chance to make it a one-possession game, but the Griffs came up empty and were forced to foul Mount St. Mary's to stop the clock. Mountaineer guard Xavier Lipscomb made both of those free-throws to cap the day's scoring.
 
HEAD COACH JIM CHRISTIAN'S POSTGAME COMMENTS
"I thought we did some good things today at both ends of the floor, but it was not sustained for a full 40 minutes. When we moved the ball, we had good looks, and I thought we did a good job defensively at times. We turned them over 19 times. But give them credit, late in the game when the score was tied, they made shots and got defensive stops, and we did not."
 
GAME NOTES
• Sunday was the eighth meeting in series history, a series that dates back to the 1933-34 season. Mount St. Mary's leads the series 6-2.
• All seven Canisius players who saw the floor on Sunday scored at least three points.
• The 13 makes from 3-point land by the Griffs are tied for the second most by the team in a game this season. The Griffs also made 13 3-pointers in the home win over Rider Jan. 10.
• McMillan IV is the third Canisius player in the last 51 years to score 20-or more points in 15-or more games in his first season with the program, and he is the first to do it since Ron Peaks did it 18 times in 1977-78.
• McMillan IV has scored 20-or more points in eight of the team's 11 home games to date. He is averaging 21.6 points per game at the Koessler Athletic Center this season.
• McMillan IV now has 499 points scored this season. His next point will make him the ninth junior in Canisius history to score 500-or more points in a season, and he will be the first to do it since Jermaine Crumpton had 539 total points in 2016-17.
• Kopa became the first Griff in at least the last 20 years to make five-or more 3-point field goals in eight games in the same season. He is the first MAAC player to accomplish that since Iona's AJ English in 2014-15.
• Kopa's five treys on Sunday gives him 77 makes from behind the arc this year. He is just the seventh player in school history to hit more than 75 3-pointers in a single season.
• Sophomore Anthony Benard matched a career-high with five steals in the losing cause. He has registered multiple steals in six of the team's last eight ball games.
• Thompson is averaging 9.0 points per game since joining the starting line-up for the Griffs Feb. 6 at Quinnipiac.
 
UP NEXT
Canisius will return to the road for a pair of league games next weekend, starting Feb. 21 when the team travels to play at Marist. Game time in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., is set for 7 p.m., and the game will be broadcast live on ESPN+. The Canisius radio call will be available at GoGriffs.com through the Golden Griffin Broadcast Network, on the Varsity Network APP and on X through the @GoGriffs handle.
 
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