Box Score

St. Mary's City, Md. - To student chants of "I believe we will win!," senior guard Camontae Griffin (Baltimore, Md./Dunbar) raced down the court and put the finishing touches on the lay-up that thrust No. 13 St. Mary's College of Maryland back into the Sweet 16.  St. Mary's edged No. 11 Virginia Wesleyan College, 72-69, as the Seahawks fed off the energy of 871 strong at the Michael P. O'Brien Athletics & Recreation Center Arena Saturday night.

Griffin's layup with 35 seconds remaining in regulation resulted from his boxing out in the defensive end and grabbing the rebound of senior guard Stephen Fields' (Hampton, Va./Hampton) missed three-point attempt.

After the Seahawks grabbed the 70-69 lead, Virginia Wesleyan ran down the clock to 10 seconds before Fields attempted another three-point shot that was off the mark and St. Mary's was awarded the ball.  On the in-bounds play, sophomore guard James Davenport (Owings Mills, Md./Loyola Blakefield) was fouled by the Marlins and Davenport knocked down both free throws with eight ticks left to ice the 72-69 win.

St. Mary's (26-3) will now take on No. 18 Franklin & Marshall College (25-4), who was a 73-64 winner over U.S. Merchant Marine Academy tonight, in one of four NCAA sectionals on Friday-Saturday, March 12-13.  This will be the Seahawks' second meeting with F&M this season as the Diplomats handed St. Mary's a 72-61 setback on November 30.

Joining the Seahawks and F&M in the four-team sectional are DeSales University and Randolph-Macon College.  The host sites for the sectional will be announced at a later time.

This is the end of the road for Virginia Wesleyan as the Marlins, who claimed the national title in 2006, close out their 2009-10 campaign with a 23-6 overall record.

For the second consecutive night, four Seahawk starters finished in double figures with junior guard Alex Franz (Catonsville, Md./Cardinal Gibbons) leading the pack this time with 17 points and eight assists while Griffin finished with 15 and seven helpers.  Junior center Sam Burum (Bethesda, Md./Walt Whitman) contributed 11 points and five rebounds while Davenport chipped in 10 and a team-best six caroms.  Junior forward Kyle Jarczynski (Bel Air, Md./Calvert Hall) also tallied 10 points off the bench in 18 minutes on 5-of-5 shooting.

St. Mary's did not connect on its first four field goals in the opening 2:14 of the game before Burum dropped in back-to-back baskets to ignite a 7-0 run and give the Seahawks their first lead of the game.  Virginia Wesleyan cut the deficit back to two (15-13) on a jumper by sophomore forward Trevor Watson (Upper Marlboro, Md./Frederick Douglas) at 9:57.  St. Mary's notched its biggest lead of the game (eight points) at 3:55 following a 12-6 surge before VWC closed out the half on a 9-4 spurt to only be down 31-28 at halftime.

Sophomore forward Donald Vaughn (Woodbridge, Va./Dumfries Potomac) paced the Marlins with a double-double on game-highs of 22 points and 12 rebounds as Vaughn was 10-of-15 from the floor.  Fields, a four-time All-Old Dominion Athletic Conference selection, finished his last collegiate game with a 19-point effort.  First-year forward Chris Astorga (Virginia Beach, Va./Cape Henry Collegiate) rounded out the double-digit scoring with 10 points and five boards.