ST. MARY'S CITY, Md. – Camontae
Griffin and Alex Irmer combined for 43
points to lead St. Mary's (Md.) to an 84-77 non-conference
men's basketball victory over McDaniel in the opening round
of the 2008 Provident Pride of Maryland tournament on Tuesday.
The Green Terror (1-1), the tournament's defending champions,
had four players reach double figures led by T.J.
Odunlami's (Columbia, Md./Atholton) 17 points
– 11 of which came at the free-throw line.
Griffin tallied 15 of his game-high 23 points after halftime to
lead the Seahawks (3-0) back from a 39-36 deficit at the
intermission and into the semifinals against Washington (Md.), who
defeated Stevenson, 89-76. The two teams will at Stevenson in the
second semifinal at 8 p.m. McDaniel will play the host Mustangs at
3:45 p.m.
Knotted at 62-all for the ninth and final time with 7:43 to play,
Mike Bowden hit a layup to spark a 6-0 burst over
the next nearly two minutes to take the lead for good.
Two Louis Sarris-Grau (Huntingdon Valley, Md./Lower
Moreland) free throws with 3:55 on the clock trimmed the
deficit to 72-68 but an Irmer 3-pointer keyed a 7-1 run that pushed
the lead to 10.
A Steve Wilson (Lebanon, N.J./North Hunterdon)
made it an 80-76 game with 19 seconds showing but the Seahawks went
4-for-4 from the line to hold on for the win.
Even at 6-all, four points from Kevin Henry (Potomac,
Md./Bullis School) keyed an 8-0 run that gave the Green
Terror a 14-6 lead with 13 minutes to play in the first
half.
St. Mary's closed the deficit to with 27-26 before McDaniel
reeled off 13 of the game's next 16 points re-establish its
nine-point advantage.
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