ST. MARY'S CITY, MD-The St. Mary's College Seahawks
men's basketball team used a 50-point second half to hold off
the upset-minded York College Spartans in Capital Athletic
Conference action on Saturday afternoon in St. Mary's City,
MD. The Seahawks, who dropped an overtime decision in York in
January, improve to 18-4 overall and 11-2 in the conference. The
Spartans fall to 7-15 overall and 5-8 in the CAC. York has now
alternated a win and a loss in their last nine games.
St. Mary's got off to a scorching start as they led the Green
and White 24-7 just under seven minutes into the game. The Seahawks
again led by 17, at 28-11, as the Spartans looked like they were
going to get run out of the ARC Arena. The Spartan offense then
woke up and put together a 19-4 run that cut the Seahawk lead to
32-30 with 4:12 left in the half. The Spartans eventually took a
38-36 lead on a Nick Brady (Hanover, Pa./Delone
Catholic) triple with 37 seconds left in the half. The
Seahawks got a pair of Mike Bowden free throws with 24 seconds left
to tie the game heading to the break.
The Spartans kept the game close in the opening five minutes of the
second half. York's last lead came on a Julian Watson
(Odenton, Md./Arundel) jumper with 16:44 remaining in the
game. St. Mary's then responded with a 15-2 run, turning
their one point deficit into a 12-point lead. The Spartans kept
fighting as they cut the Seahawks lead to seven, at 65-58, on a
Watson lay up with 7:15 remaining. That would be as close as York
would get the rest of the way as the Seahawk lead grew to as many
as 15 points in the final two minutes before the Green and White
trimmed the final deficit to nine.
The Seahawks had all five starters reach double figures in a very
balanced attack. Sophomore guard Alex Franz led the Seahawks with a
double-double as he had 14 points and 13 assists. He also had five
steals and three rebounds as he played all 40 minutes for the
hosts. Seniors Alex Irmer and Calvin Wise led the Hawks as they
each tallied 17 points. Irmer added eight rebounds while Wise
pulled down six caroms of his own. Camontae Griffin added 15 points
while Mike Fitzpatrick chipped in with 12 points, three assists,
three rebounds, and three steals.
The Spartans received a game-high 18 points from Watson as the
freshman continues to play well. Watson was 9-for-16 from the floor
while he also had three assists and two steals. Brady added 16
points and five rebounds for the Spartans. He was 5-for-11 from the
floor including a three while he was 5-for-6 from the free throw
line. Senior Mike Riley (Webster, N.Y./McQuaid
Jesuit) was the third Spartan in double figures as he had
11 points on 4-of-5 shooting including 3-of-4 from distance in just
15 minutes of action.
Both teams shot well from the floor as St. Mary's converted
55.9% of their shots for the game while York made 55.4% of their
attempts for the contest. York struggled from the free throw line
as they made 12-of-20 from stripe while St. Mary's made
19-of-27 (70.4%) for the game. St. Mary's went 9-for-14 from
the line over the final two minutes of the game.
St. Mary's out-rebounded the Spartans 32-29 while the hosts
held a 50-40 edge in points in the paint. York did force 18 St.
Mary's turnovers which they turned into 21 points. St.
Mary's converted York's 19 miscues into 14 points.
The Spartans are now off until next Saturday when they travel to
first-place Wesley College for their final regular season CAC road
game of the year. Tip off in Dover, Del is set for 4:00 pm.
GAME BOX
Julian Watson photo courtesy of Eric
Linsley
