Owings Mills, Md. – No. 11 St. Mary's College of Maryland fell two points shy of a three-peat in the Pride of Maryland Division III Men's Basketball State Championship title game Saturday night as the Seahawks suffered a 56-54 setback to Capital Athletic Conference newcomer, Frostburg State University. Seven straight points by senior guard Brian Anderson (Perry Hall, Md./Eastern Tech) in the final 1:45 of the game stretched Frostburg State's two-point lead from 2:45 to five with 22 seconds remaining.
Senior guard Alex Franz (Catonsville, Md./Cardinal Gibbons) kept St. Mary's in the hunt for its third straight Pride of Maryland championship title as a pair of three-pointers pulled the Seahawks within two at 00:48 (53-51) and 00:15 (56-54).
After junior Bradley Nunn (Ft. Washington, Md./Riverdale Baptist) missed two free throws with 13 ticks on the clock to extend the Bobcat lead, St. Mary's senior center Sam Burum (Bethesda, Md./Walt Whitman) and junior Mikey Fitzpatrick's (Bethesda, Md./Walt Whitman) attempts were off the mark in the final two seconds.
Franz became a three-time All-Tournament selection while Burum joined him on the team for the first time in his career. Franz finished the game with 13 points, six rebounds, four assists and two steals while Burum matched his career-high with game-high 12 boards and seven points.
After collecting a PoM single-game record with eight blocks last night, Seahawk first-year forward Christian MacAuley (Silver Spring, Md./Paint Branch) added the PoM tournament record for blocks to his resume as MacAuley added four more to bring his tournament total to 17, surpassing the old mark of 13 set by Johns Hopkins University's Danny Nawrocki in 2006.
Following a sluggish start by both squads, Frostburg jumped out in front first for a 6-2 lead before senior forward Kyle Jarczynski (Bel Air, Md./Calvert Hall) finished a layup for the Seahawks first lead of the game at 11:44 (10-8). Fitzpatrick connected on a long-range shot for the team's second lead at 6:19 (17-16). The Bobcats used an 11-4 run to secure their biggest lead of the half of six points (27-21) at 1:24 en route to a 28-25 halftime lead as Jarczynski and Franz cut the margin to three.
St. Mary's tied up the game twice in the first five minutes of the second stanza before the Bobcats went on a 15-6 run to lead 47-38 with 7:16 remaining in the game. At that point, the Seahawks began to chip away at the nine-point deficit.
MacAuley contributed 12 points and seven rebounds as well while Fitzpatrick finished one-rebound shy of a double-double with 10 points and nine boards.
The Seahawks will return to action Saturday, November 27 when St. Mary's welcomes No. 7 Franklin & Marshall College to the Michael P. O'Brien Athletics & Recreation Center Arena for a rematch of last year's NCAA Sweet Sixteen match-up in which the Diplomats knocked out the Seahawks. Tip-off is at 4:00 pm.