St. Mary's City, Md. – On the opening day of the Seahawk Holiday Classic, the No. 16 St. Mary's College of Maryland men's basketball team notched their ninth straight victory with a 75-56 non-conference win over Swarthmore College Saturday afternoon.
In the first game of the afternoon, SUNY College at Old Westbury (7-2) picked up a 100-97 triumph over Misericordia University (6-4) as the two teams combined for 29 three-pointers.
The Seahawks (9-1) will wrap up the Classic tomorrow when St. Mary's faces Misericordia at 4:00 pm. Old Westbury and Swarthmore (3-7) will start Sunday off with a battle at 2:00 pm.
For the third straight game, junior guard Donn Hill (Aberdeen, Md./Bel Air) paced St. Mary's in scoring with a season-best 19 points on 6-of-9 shooting while adding a season-high three assists. Junior guard Brendan McFall (Poolesville, Md./Poolesville) followed suit with 14 points, season-best seven rebounds and career-high three blocks.
Sophomore guard Nick LaGuerre (Baltimore, Md./Lansdowne) was the third Seahawk to score in double digits as LaGuerre tallied 13 points and dished a career-best five assists.
After opening up the contest with an 8-2 run, St. Mary's found itself down 13-10 at 11:11 of the first half. The Seahawks responded with a 25-8 tear to lead by 14 on a McFall three-pointer with 1:53 remaining before heading into the locker room with a 35-23 halftime advantage.
Junior Jay Kober (North Huntingdon, Pa./Norwin) paced all players at intermission with eight points while Hill and McFall led the Seahawks with seven points each.
The Seahawks notched 12 points off of 11 second-half Swarthmore turnovers, bolstering their margin to 22 points with 7:34 remaining in the game.
For the game, St. Mary's outscored the Garnet 40 to 18 in the paint while posting 24 points on 21 Swarthmore turnovers. The Seahawks shot 42.4% for the game and were 21-of-32 from the free throw line.
Senior forward Will Gates (Willseyville, N.Y./Candor Central) paced Swarthmore with 17 points off the bench on 7-of-13 shooting while junior forward Joe Keedy (Petoskey, Mich./Petoskey) finished with a double-double on 11 points and 11 rebounds to help Garnet post a 41-38 rebounding margin.
Facebook: http://facebook.com/StMarysAthletics
Twitter: http://twitter.com/smcseahawks, #SeahawkNation