St. Mary’s Takes Big Leap in This Week’s D3hoops.com Top 25

Sterling, Va. - Following its 3-0 start to the 209-10 campaign, the St. Mary's College of Maryland men's basketball team jumped up eight spots in the D3hoops.com Week 1 Top 25 released Tuesday afternoon by Pat Coleman as St. Mary's ranks 12th in this week's national poll.

The Seahawks (3-1) were 20th in this year's preseason rankings after completing the 2008-09 season with an overall record of 21-5 and as the Capital Athletic Conference regular-season champions.

Before the Week 1 poll came out, St. Mary's suffered its first loss of the season Monday night, falling at then No.6 Franklin & Marshall College, 72-61.  The Diplomats (4-1) dropped four spots to No. 10 in this week's poll after losing 62-59 at Lebanon Valley College on November 24.

As a team, St. Mary's currently leads the conference in free throw percentage (.783), steals (11.3 per game), and turnover margin with +9.25 (having committed 37 fewer turnovers than its opponents).

Senior guard Camontae Griffin (Baltimore, Md./Dunbar) is the CAC's scoring leader with 27.3 points per game while boasting the best free throw percentage in the league at .912 (31-of-34).  Griffin also leads conference players with 2.8 steals per game.

Junior guard Alex Franz (Catonsville, Md./Cardinal Gibbons) is averaging a conference-best 4.8 assists per game and owns the top assist-to-turnover margin at 2.0.  Franz is also second in steals with a 2.5 average while ranking tied for fifth in free throw percentage (.833).

Junior center Sam Burum (Bethesda, Md./Walt Whitman) and sophomore forward Brian Grashof (Downingtown, Pa./Downingtown West) have also contributed to the Seahawks early success as Burum ranks tied for second in the CAC in free throw percentage (.857) while Grashof is fourth in field goal percentage (.611).

St. Mary's will be back on the court tonight as the Seahawks open up league action at Marymount (Va.) University in Arlington.  Tip-off is set for 8:00 pm.