No. 20 Seahawks Pick Up Second Consecutive Loss at St. John Fisher
Rochester, N.Y. - St. John Fisher College built a 54-35 halftime lead and never looked back as the Cardinals handed the No. 20 St. Mary's College of Maryland men's basketball team its second straight loss by a 97-80 margin in non-conference action Monday night in the St. John Fisher College Classic.
St. John Fisher (4-1) became the first team this season to score more than 81 points against the Seahawk defense as sophomore guards Ozell Franklin (Henrietta, N.Y./Rush-Henrietta) and Anthony Hall (Palmyra, N.Y./Palmyra-Macedon) tallied 21 and 20 points, respectively.
St. Mary's (7-2), who is ranked second in Division III in three-point field goal percentage defense, was unable to shut down the Cardinal perimeter attack as SJFC made 13 of 24 three-pointers. St. John Fisher also out-rebounded the Seahawks, 44 to 34.
The Cardinals never trailed in this game as they opened up the scoring with three straight three-pointers after missing they're first three two-point attempts. St. John Fisher finished the first half shooting 58.8% (10-of-17) from downtown. Franklin led all players at intermission with 14 points on 5-of-7 shooting, including a perfect 4 for 4 from behind the three-point arc.
Freshman guard James Davenport (Baltimore, Md./Loyola Blakefield) paced the Seahawks with nine first half points as Davenport connected on all three of his attempts, while sophomore forward Mike Bowden (Columbia, Md./Long Reach) added seven points, three rebounds and a pair of blocks.
SMCM outscored St. John Fisher, 45-43, in the second half as senior forward Calvin Wise (Bel Air, Md./Calvert Hall) picked up 10 points on 2-of-3 shooting from the floor and 6-of-8 from the charity stripe. For the second game in a row, the Seahawks' leading scorer, junior guard Camontae Griffin (Baltimore, Md./Dunbar), was to 10 points or less as Griffin chipped in just eight points with six coming in the first half.
Junior guard Matt Newman (Campbell, N.Y./Campbell-Savona) registered a double-double for the Cardinals with 12 points and 11 rebounds, while freshman guard Jordan Gettings (Cohoes, N.Y./Catholic Central) contributed 14 points.
Davenport finished as the Seahawks' leading scorer with 15 points, while Wise had 14 and five boards. Bowden ended up with nine points, four caroms, and three blocks. Sophomore guard Alex Franz (Catonsville, Md./Cardinal Gibbons) also put up nine points and a team-best six rebounds.
St. Mary's returns to action tomorrow and hopes to halt its losing skid at two when the Seahawks take on Alfred University in their second game at the SJFC Classic at 1:00.
