St. Mary's City, Md. – No. 14 St. Mary's College of Maryland handled yet another nationally-ranked opponent in the Michael P. O'Brien Athletics & Recreation Center Arena Wednesday night as team captains Mikey Fitzpatrick (Bethesda, Md./Walt Whitman) and Alex Franz (Catonsville, Md./Cardinal Gibbons) combined for 39 points, nearly 50% of the team's 86 points, in the Seahawks' 86-67 dominance of No. 25 Christopher Newport University.
Tonight's game marked the second consecutive Top 25 squad that St. Mary's (4-1) has faced thus far this season as well as the second time in a row that the Seahawks have won by a 19-point margin.
Fitzpatrick poured in a career-high 20 points on 7-of-12 shooting, including connecting on 4-of-8 from long-range, while grabbing a game-best six rebounds and picking up a career-high four assists as well as two steals. Franz did not finish far behind with 19 points as he dropped a career-high four three-pointers while going 5-of-6 from the free throw line.
The Seahawks only trailed once in the game as Christopher Newport (4-2) collected the first basket of the contest at 19:15 before a lay-up by senior center Sam Burum (Bethesda, Md./Walt Whitman) and a three-pointer by sophomore guard Devin Spencer (Baltimore, Md./Towson Catholic) in a 39-second span ignited a 23-4 run over a 5:15-minute block.
St. Mary's sharpshooting was instrumental in its 23-4 run as the Seahawks could not miss from behind the arc, making 5-of-7 long range shots. Fitzpatrick had three of his career-best four three-pointers in that run en route to notching 11 first-half points. The Seahawks were 7-of-14 from downtown in the first half in building a 40-30 halftime advantage.
Burum collected his second straight game with double figures for the Seahawks as he added 11 points along with a game-best six rebounds, two assists and one steal.
The Captains did not get any closer than 11 points in the second half as St. Mary's seemed to score at will, knocking down 51.7% of its attempts in the second half. The Seahawk defense also did a number on CNU's leading scorer, junior guard Conley Taylor (Newport News, Va./Menchville). Taylor entered the game averaging 23.6 points but was held to just six in 23 minutes.
Other players stepped up for CNU as first-year guard Tra Benefield (Richmond, Va./Evangel Christian) tallied game-bests of 22 points and six boards while forwards Mike Green (Norfolk, Va./Granby) and Brian Herrmann (Newport News, Va./Denbigh) each had a dozen points.
The Seahawks will open up defense of their Capital Athletic Conference championship title this Saturday, December 4 as they travel to Owings Mills to take on Stevenson University. Tip-off is at 4:00 pm.