Marymount
- Dec 12, 2021
- 5 min read
Marymount Saints (4-4) vs. Shenandoah Hornets (2-5)
Wednesday, December 8, 2021 @ 8PM
Arlington, VA Rose Bente Lee Center
THE SCHOOL
Marymount University is a private Catholic university in Arlington, Virginia. Founded in 1950, MU enrolls 3,294 students and has an endowment of about $45 million. This is the first game in Virginia I've seen.
The Marymount Saints compete in the Atlantic East Conference (AEC) in NCAA Division III. The AEC is one of the NCAA's newest conferences, having only been founded in 2018. Interestingly, the conference's reigning men's basketball champion, Wesley College, no longer exists. It was acquired by Delaware State University and now exists as a satellite campus of DSU. Therefore, the Atlantic East will have a new champ this year.
Shenandoah University is a private Methodist university in Winchester, Virginia. Winchester is in northwestern Virginia, right between the Maryland and West Virginia borders. I hope to go to a game there one day. The Shenandoah Hornets compete in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC).
THE TOWN
To get to Arlington from College Park, you'll take State Highway 201 to get out of Maryland, and drive through DC on the Baltimore-Washington Parkway and Interstate-395 before getting on the George Washington Parkway to get into Virginia. I've taken this path several times before; if you drive it during the day, you can see RFK Stadium, the Washington Monument, the Jefferson Memorial, and the tippy-tippy-top of the Capitol Building out your window. Once you get into Virginia, you also drive right by the Pentagon and you technically drive through Arlington National Cemetery, though you can't see anything. Unfortunately, I drove it at night so I didn't get a good look at any of it.
Fun fact: Arlington isn't a city, it's a county. It functions as if it were a city and it doesn't have any independent communities within it, but it's officially Arlington County. At 26 square miles, it is one of the smallest counties in the United States.
Marymount's school grounds are tucked away between a residential area and a golf course. It has a small campus (just 21 acres) so I presume many students must commute to class. It's a nice enough campus, though. As you can see in the picture, they seem excited for Christmas.
Since Marymount's campus is so small, it must be pretty easy to get around, right? Well...
I parked in the first spot I saw (a garage as soon as you enter campus) and tried to walk to the basketball gym. I got on the main road and found a sign that pointed you to all the buildings on campus. It said "Rose Bente Lee Center" followed by an arrow pointing straight up.
Straight for me was up a flight of stairs on the outside of a building, which - in hindsight - was clearly wrong. But I was just trying to get to the gym and followed the sign too literally and headed right up those stairs. All I found were two clearly locked doors, so I walked back down and into a little green area. I walked around the green area a little to see if I could get around the building, figured I couldn't, and then realized what this little green area was: I was in a small graveyard.
Now, I don't believe in ghosts. But it was pitch dark, I was in an unfamiliar location, and no part of me expected to be in a graveyard, so I hightailed it out of there. Upon further research, it seems like I was in Birch-Campbell Graveyard, which actually has a pretty cool story. But I did not want to be there right then. Anyway, I eventually found my way to basketball.
Rose Bente Lee Center is one of the most unique basketball gyms I've been to. At most small colleges, the varsity basketball team shares a building with the campus recreation center. Rose Bente Lee has both of these things, but it also has the bookstore, mailroom, a game room, offices, a cafe, and seems to be the main hangout area for students. This place didn't have concessions, students just got food at the cafe and walked into the gym with a whole meal. It all added up to a very cool atmosphere and was the exact opposite of a graveyard in the middle of the night.
THE GAME
Admission to Marymount sporting events is free, which I always appreciate. I walked right in and found a spot at the top level of the bleachers, which were only about eight rows up.
While attendance was not huge (it's officially listed at 150), those who were there were engaged in the game. MU had a large student presence with several sections of students getting into it, cheering on the Saints and goading the Hornets for all forty minutes. The whole game had an intense atmosphere that's really cool to see at such a small program.
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This game was a blast from the opening tip.
Marymount's first points came from a high-flying putback slam dunk by #10, Montell Cooper, and the game didn't slow down much from there. Both teams played fast and physical and kept their intensity up on both offense and defense. The score was tight for most of the first ten minutes, but a small barrage of threes gave Marymount a 24-16 lead halfway through the first half. Shenandoah didn't falter, however, and their point guard, Jaylen Williams (#1), was sometimes solely responsible for that. He hit two huge threes and lead the Hornets on a 10-1 run that gave Shenandoah a 26-25 lead with six minutes left. The Hornet lead got as high as 6 before the Saints got a couple late baskets to go to the half down 2, 39-37.
In the second half, Marymount got out to a 9-0 run and led by 7 early in the half. Jaylen Williams tried as hard as he could to keep his team in it (he finished with 24 points and 6 steals), but he couldn't keep up with Marymount. Particularly, the Hornets couldn't stop #4, Xavier Reaves, and #11, Zamir Clifton.
Reaves controlled the tempo and was the clear leader of his team. Apparently, Reaves has been the Atlantic East Conference's Defensive Player of the Week for three weeks in a row, and his play leaves no surprise why. His final box score reads: 20 points, 15 rebounds, 7 assists, and 4 steals, which is an incredible stat line no matter where you play.
However, one of my favorite players I've seen this season was Zamir Clifton. The guy came off the bench and was somehow everywhere both offensively and defensively the whole second half. During one sequence, he blocked a shot at the rim and hit a three on the other end, causing the fans to erupt. On the evening, Clifton had 13 points, 6 blocks, and a huge emotional impact on the game.
Led by Reaves, Clifton, and (#20) Marcus Stubbs' 14 points, Marymount ran away with it toward the end. They took a double-digit lead with just under ten minutes remaining and briefly led by twenty before eventually winning the game by nineteen. The Saints scored 48 second half points while the Hornets had just 27.
Final: Marymount 85, Shenandoah 66
Speaking of graveyards, rest in peace Nebraska Christian College.
I saw the Nebraska Christian Sentinels lose a nail biter on January 24, 2020 in front of 30-something spectators. In my write-up about the game, I mentioned that NCC had about 145 students; according to this article in the Norfolk Daily News, it was actually closer to half that. They'd racked up "operating losses of $1 million annually" and couldn't afford to keep the college open without more students. They announced their closing in April 2020 and shut their doors at the end of the semester.
I hate to see you go, Nebraska Christian.
Thanks for the memories.
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