St. Mary's
- Nov 19, 2021
- 6 min read
St. Mary's College Seahawks (0-0) vs. Catholic University Cardinals (3-0)
Sunday, November 14 @ 2:00 PM
St. Mary's City, Maryland
Michael P. O'Brien Athletics & Recreation Center
Battle for DC & Maryland
THE SCHOOL
St. Mary's College of Maryland (SMCM) is a public, liberal arts, honors college in St. Mary's City, Maryland. Founded in 1840, SMCM enrolls about 1,500 students and has an endowment of $33 million. St. Mary's represents itself as "The National Public Honors College;" they aim to offer the experience of a rigorous private liberal arts school at the cost of a public college.
The St. Mary's Seahawks compete in the United East Conference in NCAA Division III. Prior to this season, the United East was known as the North Eastern Athletic Conference (NEAC). Additionally, this is SMCM's first season in the conference; they were previously members of the Coast to Coast Athletic Conference, which used to be known as the Capital Athletic Conference. I think we all complain about conference changes in Division ! athletics but - trust me - for some reason it's worse in DIII.
The Catholic University of America (CUA) is a Catholic (duh) research university in Washington, DC. The Catholic University Cardinals compete in the Landmark Conference, also in DIII.
THE TOWN
As you can see from the map, St. Mary's City is considerably further south than anywhere I've been so far. SMCM is way down the coast of southern Maryland, but it's a pleasant little drive. As expected, getting out of the DC area is a bit of a hassle, but once you get on the smaller state highways going south, you gradually encounter fewer cars, more trees, and a whole new sense of openness. From my apartment, it took about an hour and forty-five minutes.
St. Mary's City was the first settlement (and first capital) in the state of Maryland. Europeans first inhabited the area in 1634 (though the Piscataway Nation had been there long before) and quickly started growing tobacco. Shortly after its founding, St. Mary's City became the first American settlement with legally mandated religious tolerance, which is pretty cool... except it didn't work at all. My two sources make it sound like Catholics and Protestants fought so much that they had to move the capital to Annapolis, where it's been ever since.
Modern St. Mary's City is very small. Per the last census, the community has fewer than 1,000 residents and it takes up only one square mile of land. There appear to be just two parts of St. Mary's City: the college campus and a historic reconstruction of the original settlement. Since I was there on a Sunday, the historic area's museum wasn't open and there were no guides, but I was still allowed to walk the grounds. It's a nice little place with a picturesque view of the St. Mary's River, a small tributary of the Potomac right before it empties into the Chesapeake Bay. The whole area seems perfect for field trips.
The other half of St. Mary's City, the college's campus, is also quite lovely. It certainly feels like an older campus, with mostly smaller buildings and plenty of green space. More than anything - the two previous games I've seen were right outside Baltimore and in Washington. While both Goucher and American feel a little apart from those places, they don't compare to the relaxed, coastal feel of St. Mary's. The flat land, consistent foliage, and lack of people reminded me of the little, out-of-the-way schools I saw in Nebraska. This project will likely primarily see games in and around Baltimore and DC, so it's good to get away for a bit.
The Seahawks play in the Michael P. O'Brien Athletics and Recreation Center, which is a far-too-long name. They like to shorten the building's name to "MPOBARC," but I have no idea what to do with that. Like at many small colleges, St. Mary's collegiate basketball gym shares a space with the regular student rec center. At the MPOBARC, the weight room is directly across the hall from the basketball gym. Both areas have long walls of windows, which means you can see people work out while watching basketball. I found this incredibly strange and I hope the guy who was lifting weights for what felt like a long time did not feel too self-conscious with all those people taking occasional glances. Overall, the Michael P. O'blah blah blah is a sleek and modern building that has great acoustics and is kept astonishingly clean, but I'm mostly going to remember its one weird quirk.
THE GAME
St. Mary's College hosted this year's Battle for DC & Maryland, an annual in-season tournament between two DC-based teams (Catholic and Gallaudet) and two Maryland-based squads (St. Mary's and Hood). From what I can tell, this is the third time this event has taken place, and Hood College won the previous two. The semifinals were supposed to take place on Saturday with the championship and consolation played on Sunday, but Hood had to withdraw due to COVID-19 issues. This meant there was just one game played both days and St. Mary's automatically went to the championship game against Catholic, who beat Gallaudet 68-60 on Saturday.
I cut this one fairly close, only getting the the gym about six minutes before the game tipped off. Tickets are usually $5, but I got a student discount of $3 even though I go to a different college. Out in the hallway - near the weight room - St. Mary's had a small concession table that consisted of 1) three or four student workers who were trying their best, 2) a broken microwave, and 3) a rather disappointing hot dog that I shouldn't have eaten at halftime. How can you not love Division III basketball?
Speaking of halftime, that's when St. Mary's honored Leo Boucher, the Men's Singlehand National Champion in intercollegiate sailing. Judging by the banner, it seems that sailing is the Seahawks most successful sport, which makes sense based on its close proximity to the water. In fact, of the thirty-six schools that sponsor varsity sailing, five are in Maryland or DC.
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The Seattle Seahawks and Arizona Cardinals don't play until next week, but the real Seahawks vs. Cardinals matchup occurred here.
Both St. Mary's Seahawks and Catholic's Cardinals play an energetic, up-tempo style. The first half was fast paced and tight as the teams appeared evenly matched. Catholic's #12, Jesse Hafemeister, led the half in scoring with 12 and CUA's #32, Frank Lumaj, was the tallest player on the floor at 6'9" and could score with ease when he got the ball. For St. Mary's, #15, Jordan Goodwin was the clear star, leading the team with 12 points and dictating the pace. #21, Isaiah Eggleston, made three deep shots near the end of the half, and SMCM led 38-37 at intermission.
The second half saw strings of runs by both teams. Catholic quickly got an 8-1 run to take the lead, but St. Mary's clawed back and tied the game 53-53 with 12:40 left. Then Catholic had an 8-0 run immediately followed by a 10-0 Seahawk run that was finished off by another three-pointer from Eggleston. But Catholic's Jesse Hafemeister (who ended the day with 25 pints) wouldn't go away as he continued to hit big shots and get the lead back to Catholic.
With 3:19 left, Catholic led 70-68. St. Mary's then went totally cold, missing four consecutive free throws as they allowed Catholic to take a 7 point lead (75-68) with only 54 seconds on the clock. But Jordan Goodwin made a clutch three and - after two Catholic free throws - Bryant Palmer (#23) made one as well. With 29 seconds left St. Mary's was only down by 3.
In this scenario, the best thing you can possibly do is force a turnover and get the ball to a good shooter for a deep shot. This is exactly what the Seahawks did: Hafemeister somehow threw the ball off the side of the backboard, St. Mary's inbounded the ball to #1, Olumide Lewis who passed to Bryant Palmer who could have made the game-tying shot... had his feet not been on the wrong side of the three-point line. St. Mary's still trailed and, after two more Catholic free throws with 13 seconds left, needed a three-pointer to tie. Give credit to the Cardinals' suffocating defense on the last play; St. Mary's couldn't find a clean look, so Olumide Lewis heaved a thirty-footer with two hands in his face. The ball fell short of the rim, and the Seahawks' furious comeback came up just short.
Final: Catholic 79, St. Mary's 76
Hey look, another close game! In Nebraska I got into a string of seeing some noncompetitive games, so I hope this holds up.
Also, it should be noted that in the short history of this blog, I have already seen two schools named "St. Mary" with this one and Omaha's College of Saint Mary in February 2020. There should be a third coming eventually but I won't spoil the surprise. See ya next time.
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