St. Mary’s City, Md. — The St. Mary’s College of Maryland men’s basketball team opened its home schedule with an 85-75 nonconference victory over Regent University on Nov. 12, 2025, at Michael P. O’Brien Athletics and Recreation Center. The Seahawks, now 2-1, led wire-to-wire behind senior captain Jake Koverman’s season-high 18 points and forced 26 turnovers from the visiting Royals, converting those miscues into 29 points.
St. Mary’s jumped ahead 4-0 in the opening minute and built a 33-11 cushion with 6:58 left in the first half after Koverman’s free throws. Regent closed the period on a 20-15 surge fueled by Brendan Goods’ 10 points, trailing 48-31 at halftime. Sophomore James Crimaudo extended the margin to 68-44 midway through the second half with a layup, capping a 20-13 Seahawks run to start the stanza. The Royals rallied late, trimming the deficit to 77-71 on a 27-9 spurt led by Christian Brown’s 13 points in the final stretch, but first-year guards Tristan Thompson and Kai Hyde combined for eight points in an 8-4 closing sequence to seal the outcome.
Koverman, from Severna Park, added three steals, three rebounds and a block to his scoring line in 26 minutes. Crimaudo, a Riva resident, posted 14 points, six rebounds and three steals, while first-year Korey Blair of Baltimore chipped in 11 points, a season-high six rebounds and a steal. Thompson matched Blair’s scoring total with season bests of four rebounds and two steals in limited action, and first-year forward Evan Quintero from Fallston grabbed a game-high nine boards. Junior guard James Lerner of Herndon, Virginia, dished six assists to tie his personal best.
Regent, dropping to 0-1 in its season debut, shot 53.3 percent from the field in the second half after a 33.3 percent first-half clip. Brown paced the Royals with a game-high 24 points, Goods added 14 and Antoine Brown contributed 11 points with seven rebounds. St. Mary’s held a 38-42 rebounding edge but dominated free throws at 22 of 27 for 81.5 percent, compared to Regent’s 22 of 27.
The win followed a 74-68 road setback to Averett University on Nov. 7 that dropped the Seahawks to 1-1, where Crimaudo led with 23 points in the loss. St. Mary’s entered the Regent matchup as the United East Conference’s fourth-ranked team in the preseason coaches poll released Nov. 4, behind Penn State Harrisburg, Salisbury and Mary Washington.
Under fourth-year head coach Matt Sharbaugh, St. Mary’s blends returning experience with a deep freshman class. Koverman, the team’s lone senior, anchors the backcourt after averaging 12.4 points last season en route to All-United East second-team honors. Crimaudo, a 6-foot-4 wing, steps into a lead role following a freshman campaign of 9.8 points and 4.2 rebounds. Lerner, at 6-foot-2, provides playmaking with his vision, having notched 4.1 assists per game in 2024-25. The newcomers, including Thompson (6-foot-1 guard) and Quintero (6-foot-7 forward), bring athleticism from Maryland high school programs like Urbana and Gilman, bolstering depth in a rotation that saw eight players score in the Regent game.
Regent, based in Virginia Beach, traveled about 200 miles north for the matchup as part of a nonconference slate that includes games against Division I foes like Old Dominion later in November. The Royals, coached by Bill Geiman in his second season, emphasize perimeter shooting but struggled with ball security against St. Mary’s pressure defense, which ranked ninth nationally in Division III last year at 15.2 forced turnovers per game.
Next for the Seahawks: a Nov. 17 road test at Shenandoah University in Winchester, Virginia, at 7 p.m., followed by a Nov. 22 home date against Stevenson University at 3 p.m. in the Dan Greene/Wayne Cook Memorial Game. Stevenson enters 2-0 after early wins over non-Division III opponents. St. Mary’s nonconference schedule features eight games, four at home, before opening United East play Dec. 6 at home versus Penn State Berks.
As Southern Maryland’s sole Division III basketball program, St. Mary’s fosters rivalries within the United East, including annual matchups with Salisbury that draw 800-plus fans. The conference tournament, set for Feb. 26 to March 1 at higher seeds’ sites, offers an automatic NCAA bid, with the Seahawks eyeing a return to the 32-team field after 2023’s first-round appearance. Early-season tuneups like this one refine rotations, with Blair’s versatility off the bench emerging as a factor against pressing defenses.
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