St. Mary's City, Md. – First-year center Sophie Pruden (Carrboro, N.C./Chapel Hill) recorded her second double-double of the season Saturday afternoon in helping the St. Mary's College of Maryland women's basketball team lock up sole possession of first place in the Capital Athletic Conference standings with a 70-45 win over Hood College today.
Pruden notched 13 points and matched her season-high with 11 rebounds as she was the only Seahawk to finish in double figures in any category. Pruden grabbed eight of her 11 boards in the first half to help her team to a 28-21 rebounding margin.
St. Mary's (6-3, 3-0 CAC) never trailed in the game as the Seahawks jumped out to a 20-7 lead at 9:14 en route to a 32-15 halftime advantage. Hood struggled from the floor in the first half, making only six of 27 attempts.
The Seahawks capitalized on Hood's 27 turnovers, tallying 30 points off those miscues. The bench offense for the home team was huge as well, picking up 44 points to the four points by the Blazers' reserves.
St. Mary's finished with a 46-33 rebounding advantage while registering 15 steals as first-year forward Shana Lewis (Bowie, Md./Bowie) had five of them.
All 12 players that suited up today for St. Mary's scored as several first-years scored season-highs. Marche Pearson (Laurel, Md./Laurel) led the way with nine points while Jasmine Smith (Millersville, Md./Old Mill) added eight points and two caroms. First-year forward Bridget Wilkins (Washington, D.C./Washington Waldorf) chipped in five points and two rebounds.
Hood (4-5, 0-4 CAC) was led in the loss by senior guard Allyson Lethbridge (Union Bridge, Md./Francis Scott Key) as Lethbridge had nine second-half points to finish with a game-high 14. Senior Kameron Evans (Waldorf, Md./CSM) also netted double figures with 13.
St. Mary's will enjoy a nice, long holiday break as the Seahawks won't return to action until after the New Year. The Seahawks will travel to Gettysburg College for the Days Inn Tournament on January 2-3, 2011. St. Mary's will open up tournament action against University of Scranton on January 2 at 8:00 pm. The consolation and championship games will be played the following day at 2:00 and 4:00 pm, respectively.