ST. MARY'S CITY, Md.--The St. Mary's College men's basketball
team used a balanced scoring attack to surprise the Hood College
Blazers Wednesday, putting the skids on Hood's nine-game winning
streak with an 87-81 Capital Athletic Conference victory.
Hood (16-4, 9-2) lost for the first time since Dec. 29 while the
Seahawks (10-9, 5-6 CAC) placed five players in double figures en
route to the upset.
The Blazers maintained a sizeable lead for most of the first
half. But the Seahawks overtook Hood at the 6:08 mark on a pair of
free throws by Kyle Sullivan which ignited an astonishing 20-4 run
to close the stanza. St. Mary's took a 42-26 lead into the break.
Hood made just 1-of-11 from the floor during that spurt by the
Seahawks.
Like the Blazers had done several times before during this
magical run, Hood clawed its way back into it and eventually
regained the lead on back-to-back three-pointers by senior Sean
Robine with 4:03 to play in regulation. However, St. Mary's
countered on its next possession on a trey by Tyson Lesesne and the
Seahawks never trailed again.
Sophomore Ryan Junghans was fouled on a three-point attempt with
1:09 to play. Junghans made the first two attempts but saw his
remarkable streak of 41 consecutive free throws come to an end when
he missed the third foul shot, which kept the Seahawk lead at
three. St. Mary's connected on 5-of-6 from the foul line the rest
of the way to ice the victory.
Junior Jesse Gutekunst became the second player in Hood College
men's basketball history to crack the 1,000-point barrier after
scoring a game-high 27 points. Gutekunst connected on 11-of-15 from
the field and hauled in 10 rebounds for his 13th double-double of
the season and seventh in his last eight games.
Robine racked up a career-high 25 points and grabbed eight
rebounds. Junghans tallied 15 points, all in the second half after
misfiring on all seven field goal attempts in the first half.
Lesesne led the victors with 18 points while Valdez Preston
dropped in 17 and Alex Irmer had 13.
The Blazers return home to Gov. Thomas Johnson High School
Saturday against defending CAC champion Catholic University. Tip is
set for 2 p.m.
