Nashville, TN- The Mount Aloysius Men's Basketball team traveled to Nashville, Tennessee to play in the D3 Hoops Music City Classic. They played two games at the tournament, the first a win over Hampden-Sydney and the second a loss to Wisconsin-Eau Claire.

Against Hampden-Sydney, the Mounties used a strong first half to build a lead, which they were able to hold onto late to pick up their 7th win of the year. The Mounties began to take control of the game 5 minutes in. Julian Stover (Washington, DC/Richard Montgomery), Carlos Palacio (Bilbao, Spain/Phelps School) and Josiah Jones (Gaithersburg, MD/Magruder) hit consecutive threes to put the Mounties up 9. The Mounties reached their biggest lead with 2:43 remaining when Trent McErlane (Greenville, PA/Greenville) hit another shot from beyond the arc to put the Mounties up 13. After Hampton-Sydney whittled the lead to 8, Stover hit a jumper before the buzzer to give the Mounties a 10 point halftime lead. 

The Mounties came out of the locker room slow in the second half as Hampden-Sydney used a 14-5 run to cut the Mountie lead to 1. After the Mounties saw their lead disappear, Jones scored 9 consecutive points for the Mounties to push the lead back to 8. In the scoring run, Jones hit two three pointers, one layup on a fast break and two free throws. The Mounties picked up from Jones's run, as they built the lead back to 14 after a Nate Christian (Accokeek, MD/Surratsville) layup. Mount Aloysius were able to hold onto the lead due to some clutch free throw shooting as freshman Imil Britt (Johnstown, PA/Greater Johnstown) hit 4 in a row from the stripe to put the game away.

Stover was the leading scorer for the Mounties as he finished with 20 points and 18 rebounds. Palacio had an efficient game for the Mounties as he scored 18 points on 7-9 shooting, including hitting 4 of 5 from three. Palacio also finished with a double-double as he grabbed 12 rebounds. Josiah Jones also finished in double digits for the Mounties, scoring 13 points while also collecting 8 rebounds.

On Sunday, the Mounties faced a tougher test against Wisconsin-Eau Claire. Mount Aloysius struggled to contain junior guard Cole Rabedeaux who scored 44 points in the game. They fell behind early as Eau-Claire scored the first 8 points of the game. They quickly continued their dominance as they built a double digit lead within the first four minutes. The high water mark for the Eau Clair lead came just over 10 minutes into the game as it reached 17 points. The Mounties were able to cut the lead down to 11 with 2 minutes remaining after a Palacio tip in, however their opponents responded, with 5 straight to close the half with a 16 point lead. 

The second half was not much better for the Mounties, as Eau Claire quickly moved the lead to 20 after a minute of play. Stover hit a jumper with 14 minutes remaining to cut the lead to 17, however Eau Claire finished the game outscoring the Mounties 27-10.

Christian and Stover were the leading scorers for the Mounties, each finishing with 12 points. Palacio finished with 7 rebounds while fellow freshman Enoch Quarcoo (Eastbourne,England) also grabbed 7 boards.

The Mounties (7-5) will return to AMCC action when they travel to La Roche College on Wednesday. The game will begin at 8:00 PM.