St. Mary's City, Md. – Four Seahawks scored in double digits as the No. 25 St. Mary's College of Maryland men's basketball team posted a 58-50 Capital Athletic Conference victory over York College of Pennsylvania Saturday afternoon.
Sophomore guard Nick LaGuerre (Baltimore, Md./Lansdowne) notched season-bests of 14 points, four rebounds, and two steals while adding a career-best three blocks in leading the Seahawks to the win in a rematch of last season's CAC Men's Basketball Championship Tournament semifinals, which York won 61-58 en route to the CAC crown.
St. Mary's (4-1, 1-0 CAC) dominated the first half with a 19-4 opening run as senior forward Jeff Haus (Pittsburgh, Pa./North Allegheny) provided the spark with a layup 28 seconds in and senior guard James Davenport (Baltimore, Md./Loyola Blakefield) followed up Haus' old-fashioned three-point play with a conventional three to boast the Seahawks' biggest lead of the half at 11:52.
The Spartans (1-4, 0-1 CAC) went on a 9-0 run to close the gap to six at 7:54 but St. Mary's responded with a run of its own to regain a double-digit lead (26-15) with 1:07 remaining in the half. A triple by senior guard Julian Watson (Odenton, Md./Arundel) and a layup by senior forward Todd Maciejewski (Red Lion, Pa./Red Lion) in the final 41 seconds sent York into the locker room with a 26-20 deficit.
LaGuerre paced all scorers at intermission with nine points while Maciejewski and Watson each notched eight points to lead York.
Improved shooting by York in the second half, including a 10-2 scoring margin in the paint, allowed the Spartans to erase an early second-half nine-point setback, using a 20-9 run to claim their first lead of the game at 7:09 (45-43) on a Watson layup. Senior guard Mitch Kemp (York, Pa./York Suburban) gave York its biggest lead of the game – 50-47 – with a triple, his only points of the game, at 4:35.
Back-to-back three-pointers by senior Devin Spencer (Baltimore, Md./Towson Catholic) and Davenport returned the lead to the Seahawks and St. Mary's avoided the upset by closing out the game on an 11-0 run for the conference-opening win. Spencer and Davenport combined for nine points in the final 3:31.
York struggled with 20 committed turnovers that led to 21 St. Mary's points in the game while sending the Seahawks to the free throw line 22 times.
Haus finished the day with 11 points and four boards while Davenport and junior guard Donn Hill (Aberdeen, Md./Bel Air) each had 10 points. Spencer contributed career-bests of eight rebounds and seven assists.
Watson ended as York's scoring leader with a game-best 18 points and seven rebounds while Maciejewski chipped in 16 points and six boards.
The Seahawks will be back in action on Monday, December 3 when St. Mary's travels to Brooklyn, N.Y. to take on Medgar Evers College in non-conference action 7:00 pm.
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