Box Score St. Mary's City, Md. – Three Seahawks scored in double digits as the St. Mary's College of Maryland men's basketball team held on for their sixth consecutive win Saturday afternoon, posting a 70-66 Capital Athletic Conference triumph over Southern Virginia University.
The win maintains St. Mary's (8-3, 5-1 CAC) in a three-way tie for first place in the conference with Christopher Newport University (10-3, 5-1 CAC) and Marymount (Va.) University (11-2, 5-1 CAC). The Seahawks' one CAC loss happened at Marymount on December 6 while Marymount lost to University of Mary Washington on January 3 and CNU dropped a six-point loss at Salisbury University on December 17.
St. Mary's will return to action next Wednesday, January 14th as the Seahawks travel to Newport News, Virginia to take on Christopher Newport and break apart the three-way tie for first. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.
Senior captain Nicholas LaGuerre (Baltimore, Md./Lansdowne) notched team-best 19 points despite sitting out all but five minutes of the first half in foul trouble. Juniors Tanner Brooks (Baltimore, Md./St. Paul's School) and Troy Spurrier (Mt. Airy, Md./Glenelg) tallied similar box score lines as each one of them collected 14 points and five rebounds.
In the first half, the score was tied four times while the lead changed four times as well. The Seahawks grabbed a 33-29 halftime lead as three consecutive three-pointers by junior guard Garrett Snoops (Millersville, Md./Spalding) in a span of 1:42 helped to reverse a 26-24 Southern Virginia lead.
Snoops paced St. Mary's at intermission with nine points off the bench on 3-of-4 shooting from beyond the arc while junior forward David Baety (Orlando, Fla./Central Wyoming College [Wyo.]) led all scorers in the game with 10 as Baety was 2-for-2 from downtown.
LaGuerre guided the Seahawks to their biggest lead of the game, a 40-31 margin at 15:58, as he scored all the points in a 7-2 run to begin the second half. Southern Virginia remained persistent and cut the lead to two at 14:03 on a trey by junior guard Kevin Walker (Rexburg, Idaho/Big Bend C.C.) and again at 6:32 on an old-fashioned three-point play by first-year forward Taylor Larson (Highland, Utah/American Fork).
After Brooks gave St. Mary's a 67-60 lead, Baety and Larson both connected from downtown for a one-possession game with six ticks on the clock. Each side called a timeout and then the Seahawks killed two seconds before Larson fouled Brooks. Brooks made the backend of his two shots for the 70-66 final.
Baety finished the afternoon with game-best 23 points while Walker contributed a dozen and Larson chipped in 10 off the bench.
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