Seahawks Slip Three in This Week’s D3hoops.com Top 25

Sterling, Va. - Following its road loss to Baruch College on December 13, the St. Mary's College of Maryland men's basketball team fell three spots in the D3hoops.com Week 3 Top 25 released Monday night by Pat Coleman as St. Mary's is ranked 17th in this week's national poll.

The Seahawks (7-1) dropped its first contest of the season by a 73-54 decision to Baruch, halting SMCM win streak at seven games.

St. Mary's was also ranked in the first Division III statistical rankings of the season released by the NCAA yesterday.  The Seahawks are second in the nation in three-point field goal percentage as they have held their opponents to a .200 average from downtown.  SMCM is second to McDaniel College, who boasts a .182 three-point field goal defense.

Senior center Alex Irmer (Alexandria, Va./Wakefield) has been tearing it up from the floor as Irmer is second in the country in field goal percentage with a conference-leading .763 (45-59).  He is second to Birmingham-Southern College's Roger Williams, who boasts a .800 average.

Sophomore guard Alex Franz (Catonsville, Md./Cardinal Gibbons) is also ranked nationally as Franz owns the nation's eighth-best steals average with 3.8 per game.  Finlandia University's Tyler Gordon leads Division III with 5.0 steals per game.

Thus far this season, the Seahawks have been ranked 14th (12/9/08) and 18th (12/2/08) in the D3hoops.com national polls.  In the preseason poll, they were unofficially No. 29 as the squad received the fourth highest votes (71) after the Top 25 schools.

SMCM garnered the program's first-ever ranking at the end of the 2007-08 season with its listing at No. 24 after advancing to the Sweet 16 in its first-ever trip to the NCAA Division III Tournament.

Junior guard Camontae Griffin (Baltimore, Md./Dunbar) remains the Seahawks' dominant offensive threat with 20.0 points per game, ranking him second in the Capital Athletic Conference.  Franz and Irmer are also averaging in double figures with 12.5 and 12.3 points per game, respectively.

As a team, St. Mary's owns a +8.6 scoring margin as the offense averages 78.1 points per game, ranking them first in the CAC in scoring margin and second in scoring offense.  The Seahawks lead the conference in scoring defense (69.5 ppg) and field goal percentage (.509).

With final exams in progress this week, St. Mary's will be idle until Monday-Tuesday, December 29-30 when the Seahawks take part in the St. John Fisher College Tournament in Rochester, N.Y.  They will face the host in their first game of the tournament on Monday night at 8:00.