St. Mary’s Flies by Washington (Md) in Provident Pride Semifinals
Stevenson, Md. - The St. Mary's College of Maryland men's basketball team will be making their first-ever trip to the championship game of the Provident Bank Pride of Maryland Division III Men's Basketball Scholarship Tournament by virtue of the Seahawks' 28-point (88-60) victory over Washington (Md.) College in semifinal action Saturday night. This is the fourth year of the tournament and St. Mary's, who sat out in 2005, finished third last year and sixth in 2006.
St. Mary's (4-0) will now face the 2006 Provident Pride champion, Johns Hopkins University, in tomorrow's championship game at 6:30. Johns Hopkins (3-1) was a 54-47 winner over Salisbury University in tonight's other semifinal match-up. Washington (1-2) and Salisbury (1-4) will square off at 4:30 in the third-place game.
The Seahawk guards Camontae Griffin (Baltimore, Md./Dunbar) and Alex Franz (Catonsville, Md./Cardinal Gibbons) both poured in 21 points each to lead all players. Franz set two Provident Pride steal records on the night as he broke his own mark of six steals in a game with nine tonight, while also setting the tournament record with 12 in two games thus far. His 12 steals surpasses the mark set by McDaniel College's Chad Arrington in 2005.
After an early 4-0 lead by Washington, the Seahawks used a 7-0 spurt to take control of the game as Franz capped the run with a long range shot. St. Mary's would go on to build its advantage to 22-16 with 10:15 left as freshman James Davenport (Baltimore, Md./Loyola Blakefield) made the second of two free throws. The Shoremen capitalized on a 10-2 run to knot the game at 26-26 thanks to back-to-back three-pointers by senior guard Tim Kohlrus (Fairfax, Va./W.T. Woodson) and freshman guard Kevin Breslin (Hagerstown, Md./St. Maria Goretti).
However, St. Mary's went into intermission with a 43-33 advantage after head coach Chris Harney called a timeout to rein in his troops and close out the half on a 17-7 run as sophomore forward Mike Fitzpatrick (Bethesda, Md./Walt Whitman) had five points in the push.
Griffin and Franz led all players as the duo tallied 13 and 11 points, respectively. Kohlrus paced Washington with nine points after going 2-for-3 from downtown.
The Seahawks opened up the second half on a 12-3 run to break open a 19-point margin that St. Mary's would never relinquish.
Senior captain Calvin Wise (Bel Air, Md./Calvert Hall) finished with nine points and a game-high nine rebounds, while Fitzpatrick chipped in nine points and four boards.
Junior forward Alan Kines (Towson, Md./Towson) contributed 18 points, including 13 in the second half, to pace Washington as Kines was 6-of-14 from the field.
