No. 13 St. Mary’s Cruises into NCAA Second Round
St. Mary's City, Md. - The No. 13 St. Mary's College of Maryland men's basketball team eased into the second round of the 2010 NCAA Division III Men's Basketball Championship with a dominating 88-59 victory over Purchase College in front of 1,053 fans Friday night.
St. Mary's (25-3) will now take on No. 11 Virginia Wesleyan College (23-5), an 85-82 winner over The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey in earlier first round action. The Seahawks used a balance offense in picking up their third NCAA tournament victory in just their second tournament appearance.
Four Seahawk starters reached double figures as senior guard Camontae Griffin (Baltimore, Md./Dunbar) notched a game-high 22 points while junior guard Alex Franz (Catonsville, Md./Cardinal Gibbons) wasn't far behind with 19 points and one assist shy of a double-double. Junior center Sam Burum (Bethesda, Md./Walt Whitman) added 13 points and sophomore guard James Davenport (Owings Mills, Md./Loyola Blakefield) contributed 11.
St. Mary's came out on fire in the first half, connecting on a season second-best 72.4% from the field, including 4-of-7 from downtown. The Seahawks broke the game wide open with a 27-3 run and never looked back as Griffin scored all 22 of his points in the first half. Purchase held the lead five times in the game's opening five minutes but the Panthers (20-9) were outmatched as St. Mary's cruised to a 49-24 halftime advantage.
Junior forward Marvin Billups (Chester, N.Y./Monroe-Woodbury/Notre Dame Prep), the 2010 Skyline Conference Player of the Year, finished as Purchase's leading scorer with 12 points in 20 minutes after leaving early in the second half with injury. Of the 12 players that entered the game for the Panthers, only five tallied points.
The Seahawks ended the game shooting 60.0% including making 8-of-12 from downtown and posted their biggest margin of +39 (86-47) with 4:32 remaining in the game.
