Box Score
St. Mary's City, Md. – Senior Day was a happy one for the five on the St. Mary's College of Maryland men's basketball team as five Seahawks, including two seniors, scored in double digits in leading the 15th-ranked Seahawks to an 83-71 Capital Athletic Conference triumph over nemesis, Wesley College, Saturday afternoon.
With today's win, St. Mary's (19-5, 13-2 CAC) jumps over Wesley (16-7, 12-2 CAC) for the top spot in the league standings heading into the final week of the regular season. If both teams win their games this week, the Seahawks would have the tiebreaker advantage because of Wesley's early-season setback at York (Pa.) College on December 1.
Before the contest got underway today, seniors Sam Burum (Bethesda, Md./Walt Whitman), Alex Franz (Catonsville, Md./Cardinal Gibbons), Kyle Jarczynski (Bel Air, Md./Calvert Hall), Johann Jones (Severn, Md./Meade) and Joey Smith (College Park, Md./DeMatha) were recognized for their years of service to the Seahawk men's basketball program. This quintet will leave the program as the winningest senior class in school history. They have helped St. Mary's to a remarkable four-year record of 85-26, including a 50-13 record in conference action. The Seahawks have made two trips to the Sweet Sixteen, garnered two league championship titles, and finished as the CAC regular-season champions in back-to-back seasons under their leadership.
First-year Christian MacAuley (Silver Spring, Md./Paint Branch) led the quintet of Seahawks in double digit scoring with 17 points off the bench. Sophomore Devin Spencer (Baltimore, Md./Towson Catholic) also played well as a reserve with 11 points while the starting trio of Jarczynski, Burum and junior James Davenport (Owings Mills, Md./Loyola Blakefield) each tallied 10 points. Burum grabbed a team-best eight rebounds while Franz finished with a season-best 12 assists and added seven points.
The game was back-and-forth in the first 11 minutes with six lead changes and three tied scores. The Seahawks led 29-22 at 5:10 following a 15-4 run in a near five-minute span to erase a four-point Wolverine lead. Despite Wesley trimming the lead to three on three different occasions in the last five minutes, St. Mary's headed into the locker room with a 37-32 margin at the break.
Three Wolverines finished in double digits as junior Sean McAndrew (Lanoka Harbor, N.J./Lacey Twp.) tallied game-highs of 22 points and nine boards while guards Eric Selby (Wilmington, Del./Howard) and Chris Douglas (Landover, Md./Jericho Prep Academy) picked up 14 and 13 points, respectively.
The Seahawk defense did a great job containing the conference's leading scorer, sophomore forward Paul Reynolds (Smyrna, Del./Smyrna). Reynolds averages 17.0 points per game but was held way below his average today as he finished with just nine points.
Wesley threatened early in the second half as the Wolverines eliminated a 12-point gap by outscoring the hosts, 12-3, in a two-minute span and pulling within 52-49 at 12:23. That was as close as the Wolverines would get the rest of the way.
