The first half was a nip-and-tuck affair almost the entire stanza. The Spartans had a five-point lead twice early on but the Seahawks hit the green and white with an 11-1 run, turning their five point deficit into a five-point lead, their largest of the half. From then on, there would be four lead changes and four ties. Neither team led by more than four points and the teams headed to the half tied at 29.
The Seahawks came out of the intermission scored eight of the first 10 points of the half to take the 37-31 lead. That was St. Mary’s largest lead of the day and marked the beginning of a Spartan run that saw them score nine of the next 12 points of the half to forge a 40-all tie. St. Mary’s would briefly take a three point lead before the Spartans took the lead for good on a Brandon Bushey lay-up with 11:18 left in the game. After a Josh Wurtz trey gave the Spartans a four point lead, the Spartan maintained their advantage between one and four points until the green and white went on an 11-2 run to take the 65-54 lead with 3:36 left in regulation. The Seahawks trimmed the lead to four on a Jeffrey Turner three with 47 seconds left but YCP hit five of their final six free throws of the game to provide for the final nine-point bulge.
Bushey paced the Spartans with 20 points and four rebounds. Bushey converted a career-high 11 free throws in 12 attempts. Senior Steve Schmehl added 14 points and five rebounds while junior Stephen Grimes was the third Spartan in double figures with 11 points. Junior Ben Seibert pulled down a career-high 15 rebounds while he narrowly missed a double-double with nine points. Seibert also dished out four assists and had three blocked shots. Sophomore Kenny Fass had a solid floor game with five points, six assists, five rebounds, three steals and no turnovers in 24 minutes of action as he works his way back from an injury.
Joe Farina led the Seahawks as the sophomore had 21 points and 10 rebounds for the double-double. Farina was 10-for-21 from the floor and 1-2 from the charity stripe. Dan Engelstad and Turner each contributed 11 points for SMC. Engelstad added five assists and five rebounds while Turner collected nine rebounds for the day.
The Spartans held a significant advantage from the charity stripe as they made 25-of-33 from the stripe while St. Mary’s was just 7-for-11 for the game. The battle on the boards were even with both teams pulling down 38 rebounds for the game.
York returns to action Wednesday evening as they travel to Catholic University for a CAC contest. Tip time in Washington, DC is set for 8:00 pm.