A quest for a third straight conference-tournament championship ended with a disappointing overtime loss in the title game for the Marymount University Saints men’s basketball team.
Second-seeded Marymount (17-10) lost that road contest in the Atlantic East Conference final to the host and top seed Neumann University Knights, 83-77, to end the Saints’ season.
A victory would have given Marymount a berth in the NCAA Division III national tournament.
The championship game was close throughout, with eight ties and 13 lead changes. The score was tied at 69 at the end of regulation.
In the final, Miles Phillips led Marymount in scoring with 19 points. Reuben McEachern scored 14 and had three steals, Jase Mosley scored 12 with eight rebounds, Marcus Stubbs scored nine, and Isaac Harris had six points and as many boards.
Marymount was 1-1 in this season’s tournament under head coach Chris Rogers, defeating the Gwynedd Mercy University Griffins, 102-86, in Arlington in the semifinals.
The 102 points were a single-game season high for the Saints, aided by nine three-pointers.
Stubbs was the leading scorer with 20 points. Phillips scored 16 with four assists. Harris had 14 points, five rebounds and four assists. McEachern scored 13, Muhsin Muhammad 12 with six rebounds, Mosley 12, Joshua Hughes eight and Anthony McClary five.
McEachern, Harris and Stubbs were all-conference selections, chosen after the tournament. McEachern was chosen the Defensive Player of the Year, Harris made the first team and Stubbs the second.
McEachern, a sophomore, led Marymount and the conference with 40 steals, had a team-high 86 assists and averaged 7.7 points per game.
Harris, a junior guard, led Marymount in scoring, averaging 13.4 points a contest.
Stubbs, a fifth-year player, averaged 12.7 points per game, the team’s second most. He finished his career with 1,420 points, fourth on the team’s all-time scoring list.
NOTE: Rogers has been Marymount’s coach for 16 seasons and has 207 career wins, the most in program history. His teams have enjoyed seven straight winning seasons … Neumann also had defeated Marymount in the 2021-22 tournament final.
