St. Mary’s Claim CAC Regular Season Title
St. Mary's City, Md. - Sophomore guard Alex Franz (Catonsville, Md./Cardinal Gibbons) poured in a career- and game-high 23 points and dished out a game-high seven assists in leading the St. Mary's College of Maryland men's basketball team to the Capital Athletic Conference regular season title with a 79-73 victory over Wesley College Saturday afternoon.
The defending CAC Champions, the Seahawks (21-4, 14-2 CAC) won the battle this afternoon for first place in the league standings as well as the No. 1 seed in the upcoming CAC men's basketball playoffs, which begins on Tuesday, February 24 with quarterfinal action. St. Mary's and Wesley, the No. 2 seed, both received first-round byes and will host semifinal games on Thursday, February 26 at 7:00.
The Seahawks will host the winner of Tuesday's No. 5 seed Salisbury University (11-14, 8-8 CAC) at fourth-seeded Marymount (Va.) University (13-12, 8-8 CAC) in the semifinals on Thursday.
Three other Seahawks finished in double figures as senior forward Calvin Wise (Bel Air, Md./Calvert Hall) notched 14 points and matched his career-high with a game-high 14 rebounds. Sophomore forward Mike Bowden (Columbia, Md./Long Reach) contributed 12 points and five boards, while fellow classmate Mike Fitzpatrick (Bethesda, Md./Walt Whitman) added 10 and six as well as three assists.
Wesley (16-9, 12-4 CAC) fell behind 58-49 with 11:20 remaining in the contest following a lay-up by sophomore forward Kyle Jarczynski (Bel Air, Md./Calvert Hall). The Wolverines used an 18-10 run in a 7:29-minute span capped by a three-pointer by senior guard Evan Martin (Wilmington, Del./Laurinburg [N.C.]) to pull within one.
But back-to-back dunks by Bowden and a Franz jumper put the Seahawks back up by six (75-69) at 2:10. Wesley's juniors James Stratton (Magnolia, Del./Caesar Rodney) and Alphonzo Wright (Dover, Del./Polytech) had the Wolverines knocking on the door again, 75-73, at 1:09 but Franz sealed the deal with his career-high third three-pointer of the game with 45 seconds left in the game.
The league's leading scorer, senior guard Rashawn Johnson (Selbyville, Del./Sussex Tech), was held way below his average of 25.3 points per game as Johnson finished with 16 points and seven turnovers. Stratton was Wesley's scoring leader with 19 points, while Martin added 17 and Wright had a dozen.
St. Mary's shot 51.4 percent in the first half to post a 45-40 halftime advantage as Franz paced the home team with 11 points. Johnson led all scorers at intermission with 13 points on 5-of-9 shooting and 3-of-5 threes.
The Seahawks' 26 turnovers and sub par free throw shooting (8-of-21 for 38.1%) allowed the Wolverines to stay within striking distance, especially in the second half when Wesley shot 29.7 percent from the floor.
