Howard Drops Decision to St. Mary’s in Shamrock Classic
MORAGA, CALIF. - Omar Samhan scored a game-high 23 points to lead four players in double figures as St. Mary's College defeated Howard, 94-46 in the Shamrock Classic at the McKeon Pavilion.
Samhan, a 6-11 red-shirt senior center, got the Gaels off to a good start, tallying 17 points on 5 of 7 shooting from the floor in the first 20 minutes as his team took a 43-28 lead. Mickey McConnell chipped in with 8 of his 11 and Jorden Page came off the bench to add 7 points as SMC shot 50 percent from the floor.
The Bison (1-12) did manage to stay close for a while on the scoring of Calvin Thompson who scored 8 points and Paul Kirkpatrick contributed 6 but a late run by the Gaels gave them a cushion.
SMC (13-2) opened the first 6 minutes of the second half with 13-0 run. Samhan got into a bit of foul trouble but Beau Levesque and Matthew Dellavedova picked up the slack and combined for 18 second half points. The Gaels shot a blistering 52 percent (9 of 17) from behind the arc.
Kirkpatrick led the Bison with nine points and seven rebounds while Thompson, who did not play in the second half due to an injury, finished with eight.
Thompson was named to the all-tournament team and Samhan, who added 11 rebounds and nine blocked shots, was voted tourney MVP.
NEXT UP: Howard travels to George Washington on Saturday to take on the Colonials at the Smith Center at 2:30 pm