St. Mary’s Climbs Another Spot

Minneapolis, Minn. - The St. Mary's College of Maryland men's basketball team earned one more spot in the Week 11 edition of the D3hoops.com Top 25 poll, moving to No. 17 following their dominating 63-48 victory over Hood College this past Saturday.

Washington University in St. Louis, the two-time defending Division III men's basketball national champion, has returned to the No. 1 spot in the D3hoops.com Top 25 poll.  Washington (Mo.) received just 13 of the 25 No. 1 votes, but it was enough to edge No. 2 Williams College by a total of six points.  The Bears defeated Brandeis University and New York University on the road this past weekend, avenging one of their two losses.

This week, junior guard Alex Franz (Catonsville, Md./Cardinal Gibbons) moved back one spot in steals per game, ranking third in the nation with a conference-leading 3.6 average.  BJ McGill of St. Vincent College still maintains a hold on Division III's top spot with 3.8 steals per game to lead the nation.  Franz is nationally ranked as well in assists per game at No. 21 with a league-best 5.7 assists per game.

The Capital Athletic Conference's leading scorer, senior guard Camontae Griffin (Baltimore, Md./Dunbar) moved up one more spot to ninth in the country with his 22.4 points per game.  Griffin owns the second-best free throw percentage in the conference at 86.0% (39th in Division III) while ranking second as well in steals with a 2.3 average (51st in Division III).

As a team, St. Mary's (18-3, 10-2 CAC) ranks 17th in Division III in won-lost percentage (.857) while ranking 22nd in steals per game with a conference-best 10.5 average.  Ranking 26th in the country in scoring margin, the Seahawks beat their opponents by a league-leading +11.0 points.

St. Mary's will put its home court advantage to the test yet again this week as the Seahawks host Wesley College tonight at 8:00 pm and York (Pa.) College on Saturday at 4:00 pm.  SMCM has won 19 straight regular-season games at the Athletics & Recreation Center Arena since its last loss on January 30, 2008.