After Wednesday's Capital Athletic Conference basketball doubleheader, only two undefeated teams remain in conference play combined between the women and men. Both hail from the University of Mary Washington, as the men topped St. Mary's College, 65-55, on the road to snap a nine-game losing streak to the Seahawks and improve to 11-4 overall and 6-0 in league play. In the process, UMW snaps St. Mary's' 37-game regular season home winning streak.
The Eagles built a 13-point halftime advantage, using a 7-0 run to take a 9-3 lead, and using a pair of Bradley Riester (Richmond, Va., Monacan) three pointers to up the lead to 23-7 with 8:46 left in the first half. Matt Boward (Manassas, Va., Forest Park) and Ryan Farrar (Ashburn, Va., Centreville, Va.) then hit consecutive threes to push the lead to 15 at 29-14 with 5:57 to go in the half, and led, 34-21, at intermission.
The second half saw the Seahawks start on a 9-0 run to cut the deficit to two at 34-32, but a Farrar three pointer stopped the bleeding. The Seahawks took the lead at 42-41 with 12:16 to play, but freshman Taylor Johnson (Ashburn, Va., Broad Run) hit a three 12 seconds later, and Riester followed with another three to push the Eagle lead to five at 47-42.
Sophomore guard Walt Smith (Alexandria, Va., T.C. Williams) made a pair of layups and freshman forward Sean Armstrong (Richmond, Va., Monacan) added another to give UMW a 12-0 run and an 11-point lead at 56-45 with 6:14 left. After the Seahawks cut the deficit to five, UMW used a layup from senior Tad Dickman (Springfield, Va., Robert E. Lee) and made enough free throws down the stretch for a 10-point win.
Smith led the Eagles with 12 points on 6-9 shooting and also added four assists and five steals. Farrar went 3-8 on three pointers en route to 10 points, and Riester scored nine in 16 minutes of action. Johnson had seven points and a team-high eight rebounds for UMW, who shot 41% for the game with nine three pointers. St. Mary's shot 35% from the floor and had 29 turnovers in the game.
The Eagles will host Wesley College on Saturday at 4:00 p.m. in another Capital Athletic Conference matchup.