St. Mary’s Men’s Basketball Climbs Five Spots; Franz Third in Division III in Steals

Sterling, Va. - Currently riding a four-game win streak, the St. Mary's College of Maryland men's basketball team moved up five notches in the D3hoops.com Week 5 Top 25 released Tuesday morning as St. Mary's ranks 20th in this week's national poll.

The Seahawks' (10-2) five-spot jump comes on the heels of St. Mary's winning The Car Coop/Weenie Miller Holiday Hoops hosted by Hampden-Sydney College on December 29 and 30.  The team needed come-from-behind in both of its games to capture the tournament, tallying a 69-64 win over Averett University and a 70-69 triumph over the hosts as junior guard Alex Franz (Catonsville, Md./Cardinal Gibbons) hit a three-point shot in the final 12 seconds.

As a team, St. Mary's continues to lead the Capital Athletic Conference in scoring defense, holding their opponents to 64.8 points per game.  The Seahawks are also first in the CAC in steals per game with a 10.92 average and three-point field goal defense as foes have only connected on 4.4 long-range shots per game.

Senior guard Camontae Griffin (Baltimore, Md./Dunbar) remains the CAC's scoring leader with 21.9 points per game, ranking him 24th in Division III.  Griffin is third in the league in free throw percentage (.871) and steals (2.2 per game).

Franz is averaging a conference-best 3.8 steals per game which is the third-best average in the country.  He also owns Division III's 18th-best assist average with a league-leading 5.75 assists per game.  Franz also leads the CAC in assist/turnover ratio (1.7) while being tied for third in rebounding (6.8 RPG), 11th in three-point field goal percentage (.378) and 12th in free throw percentage (.711).

St. Mary's will be back in action this Saturday, December 9 when the Seahawks travel to Dover, Del. to resume conference play against Wesley College at 4:00 pm.