LEXINGTON, Va. — Junior forward Clayton Murtha (Dallas, Texas/Highland Park) recorded his 1,000th career point and shot 9-of-11 from the field for 22 points to propel the Washington and Lee men's basketball team to an 85-70 victory over St. Mary's (Md.) in the championship game of the W&L Holiday Tournament on Friday.

The two teams were tied at 26-26 with 4:39 left in the first half, but the Generals (4-7) engineered a 13-2 run over the final minutes of the period to take a 39-28 lead into intermission.

W&L quickly pushed the lead to 13 (43-30) in the early portion of the second, but the Seahawks (7-4) responded with eight straight points, including five by first-year guard Matt Ayoub, to trim the deficit to five, 43-38, with 16:17 left in the contest.

The Blue and White answered with a 7-2 spurt over the next couple of minutes to regain a 10-point advantage (50-40) at the 14:18 mark. The margin hovered around eight points over the next 10 minutes of game time.

With 4:20 on the clock, Murtha slipped in a layup to push the W&L advantage to nine (73-64). After a couple of defensive stops, sophomore guard Devin Kearns (Cibolo, Texas/Samuel Clemens) added a layup of his own to extend the lead to 11, 75-64, with 2:48 left in the game. A triple by first-year guard Trey Lewis (Houston, Texas/St. John's School) with 1:44 on the clock gave the Blue and White a 78-64 lead and put the game out of reach for St. Mary's. 

The Generals shot 62.2 percent (28-of-45) from the field for the game and hit a staggering 70.8 percent (17-of-24) of their shots in the second half, as the Blue and White continually beat the press the Seahawks' defense set up. W&L never trailed in the contest and led for 39 of the game's 40 minutes.

St. Mary's shot 40.6 percent (26-of-64) from the field, but just 6-of-24 (25.0 percent) from beyond the arc. The Generals held a 37-22 rebounding advantage, despite nine offensive boards for the Seahawks.

Murtha notched his 1,000th career point in the opening minutes of the game. He came into the contest with 999 points, and a layup with 18:44 left in the first half put him over 1,000. He is the 24th player in program history to achieve the feat. Murtha also had eight rebounds in the game. He now has 1,021 points in 64 career games (16.0 points per game). He was named the Tournament MVP following the contest, and senior guard Andy Kleinlein (Chesterfield, Mo./Chaminade College Prep) was named to the All-Tournament Team.

For the second game in a row, Kleinlein set a new career-high in points with 25 on 6-of-9 from the field and 11-of-14 from the foul line. He also added four rebounds and four assists. Sophomore forward Roy McMillan (Raleigh, N.C./Broughton) came off the bench to register 15 points, two rebounds, two steals and four assists. 

Ayoub led the Seahawks with 17 points on 6-of-12 from the floor. Junior wing Lavonte Sanders contributed 15 points, five rebounds and three assists.

The Generals return to ODAC play on Wednesday, when they host Shenandoah at 7:00 pm.

W&L Holiday Tournament All-Tournament Team
#2 Joseph Taylor – William Paterson
#20 Austin Duncan – Eastern
#14 Matt Ayoub – St. Mary's (Md.)
#21 Andy Kleinlein – W&L
#55 Clayton Murtha – W&L (MVP)

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