Seahawks Advance to Provident Pride Semifinals
St. Mary's City, Md. - The St. Mary's College of Maryland men's basketball team knocked off the defending champions, McDaniel College, 84-77, in the first round of the Fourth Annual Provident Bank Pride of Maryland Division III Men's Basketball Scholarship Tournament Tuesday night. Junior guard Camontae Griffin (Baltimore, Md./Dunbar) and senior center Alex Irmer (Alexandria, Va./Wakefield) each scored over 20 points to aide the Seahawk offense.
St. Mary's (3-0) now advances to the Saturday's semifinals which will be hosted by Stevenson University. The Seahawks will take on Washington (Md.) College on Saturday at 8:00 as the Shoremen posted an 89-76 victory over Stevenson. McDaniel's (1-1) defense of the Provident Pride title was cut short tonight and the Green Terror will face Stevenson in a consolation game at 3:45 on Saturday.
The first half belonged to McDaniel as the Green Terror never trailed. Irmer connected on a jumper at 6:02 to pull the Seahawks within 27-26 but McDaniel pulled away with a 12-4 run to boast its biggest lead of nine with 1:50 left in the half. Irmer and freshman guard James Davenport (Baltimore, Md./Loyola Blakefield) combined for six points in the final 1:22 to have St. Mary's behind only 39-36 at halftime.
Irmer led all players with 13 first-half points as he was a perfect 6-of-6 from the field. As a team, the Seahawks shot a blistering 70.0% from the floor to stay in the game. Senior guard T.J. Odunlami (Columbia, Md./Atholton) paced McDaniel with 10 points as Odunlami shot 3-of-4 from the floor and went 4-of-4 from the free throw line.
The score was tied six times and the lead changed three times in the second half as the Seahawks outscored McDaniel 48-38 en route to their seven-point triumph. St. Mary's used an 11-7 push to reclaim the lead (47-46) at 15:34 as sophomore guard Alex Franz (Catonsville, Md./Cardinal Gibbons) capped the run with a jumper. However, the Green Terror would not be outdone and stayed within striking distance, knotting the game for the ninth time at 62-all following a jumper by senior forward Chad Arrington (Randallstown, Md./Randallstown) at 7:43. The Seahawks notched their biggest lead of 10 (79-69) at 2:05 with a 17-7 run that McDaniel could not overcome.
St. Mary's finished with a .569 field goal percentage and improved its free throw percentage in the second half, bumping it from 42.9% in the first 20 minutes to 80%.
Griffin poured in a game-high 23 points as he was 9-of-10 from the charity stripe, while Irmer added 20 points with 9-of-11 shooting. Davenport provided 10 points off the bench with perfect 3-of-3 shooting, including going 2-for-2 from downtown.
Odunlami led his squad with 17 points, making 11 of his 14 free throw attempts. This week's Centennial Conference Player-of-the-Week, sophomore guard Kevin Henry (Potomac, Md./Bullis) added 13 points, while Arrington contributed 11 and senior forward Steve Wilson (Lebanon, N.J./North Hunterdon) chipped in 10 off the bench.
