St. Mary's City, Md. – It was a tale of two halves in the regular-season finale for the St. Mary's College of Maryland women's basketball team Saturday afternoon. The Seahawks picked up their third straight loss as the University of Mary Washington overcame its seven-point halftime deficit for the 58-33 Capital Athletic Conference victory.
St. Mary's (10-12, 4-8 CAC) will now look ahead to the upcoming 2013 Capital Athletic Conference Women's Basketball Championship Tournament which begins Tuesday, February 19 with first round action. As the fifth seed in the tournament, the Seahawks will travel to fourth-seeded Salisbury University for a first-round matchup at 6:00 p.m. St. Mary's was 0-2 against Salisbury during the regular season.
Prior to the start of the game, St. Mary's recognized its four senior players – Jasmine Jones (Gaithersburg, Md./Gaithersburg), Joanna Murray (Reisterstown, Md./Franklin), Taylor Petrisko (Pasadena, Md./Chesapeake) and Pui Sham (Springfield, Va./West Springfield) – as well as its four-year student assistant coach, Michael Victory '12.
Sham was the Seahawks' scoring leader with eight points while adding four rebounds and three steals. Junior center Sophie Pruden (Carrboro, N.C./Chapel Hill) grabbed seven boards along with two points, two assists and one steal.
Both teams struggled offensively in the first half but St. Mary's was able to edge the Eagles for a 25-18 halftime advantage. The Seahawks forced 13 Mary Washington turnovers in the first 20 minutes that led to 12 points on the board.
After sophomore guard Claire Haeuptle (Robbinsville, N.J./Peddie) gave Mary Washington a 10-5 lead at the 9:48 mark of the first half, St. Mary's went on a 20-5 run to stake a 25-15 advantage at 1:11 as Sham capped the run with her second three-pointer of the half.
Haeuptle led all scorers at intermission with 11 points on 3-of-5 shooting from downtown while Sham paced the Seahawks with eight.
It was all Mary Washington (19-6, 10-2 CAC) in the second half as the Eagles outshot the home team, 35.3% to 10.7%, outscoring St. Mary's 40 to 8. Senior center Carol Dye (Springfield, Va./Lake Braddock) and junior forward Aby Diop (Springfield, Va./Annandale) combined for 24 rebounds as UMW dominated the glass with a 55-32 rebounding margin for the game.
Haeuptle finished the day with 16 points while Dye came down with 14 boards, nine points, three steals, two assists, and two blocks.
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