St. Mary's City, Md. – The 2010 Pride of Maryland Division III Men's Basketball State Championship got underway Tuesday night and nationally-ranked St. Mary's College of Maryland, the two-time defending Pride of Maryland champion, is poised for a three-peat as the Seahawks opened up the new campaign with a 73-66 victory over Johns Hopkins University.
St. Mary's (1-0) will continue its title defense Friday night as the Seahawks face Hood College, a 72-62 winner over Goucher College, at 8:30 pm. Stevenson University will serve as the tournament host for the remaining games on November 19 and 20.
Seniors Alex Franz (Catonsville, Md./Cardinal Gibbons), a preseason All-American, and Sam Burum (Bethesda, Md./Walt Whitman) led a Seahawk foursome in double-digit scoring as the duo tallied 15 points apiece while fellow classmate Kyle Jarczynski (Bel Air, Md./Calvert Hall) put up a dozen points. Junior transfer Deon Queen (Pasadena, Md./Long Reach) rounded out the double-digit scoring with 11.
The teams were even in the first half as Johns Hopkins (0-1) fired at a .520 clip from the floor while the Seahawks were not far behind with a 51.6-field goal percentage. St. Mary's was able to distances themselves from the visitor after a 15-15 draw with an 18-10 run for its biggest lead of 8 (33-25) at 4:15.
Hopkins (0-1) closed the gap to 37-34 at intermission behind 14 first-half points from junior guard Tim McCarty (Warrington, Pa./Germantown Academy), including six in the final four minutes of the half.
Coming out of halftime, the Seahawks built a nine-point lead behind the solid play of the senior trio of Franz, Jarczynski and Burum. Hopkins fought back to within 58-57 with 7:16 remaining before a tip-in by Burum sparked an 11-3 run to cool the Blue Jays' jets and put St. Mary's back up by 9 (69-60) with 2:52 to go. The Seahawks hang on for their first victory of the 2010-11 campaign.
St. Mary's welcomed the return of junior Mikey Fitzpatrick (Bethesda, Md./Walt Whitman), who red-shirted last season because of an early season hand injury, to the starting line-up and the 6-6 guard/forward did not disappoint, finishing one point-shy of a double-double with game-high 10 rebounds and nine points.
Rookie sensation Christian MacAuley (Silver Spring, Md./Paint Branch) provided Seahawk Nation with a show as MacAuley swatted five Hopkins shots out of the air and had a solid dunk in the first half. The 6-8 forward finished with four points and three rebounds.