WCC Basketball Fans

St. Mary’s 79, Loyola Marymount 70

There’s a team in the West Coast Conference that has an outside chance of snaring an at-large berth to the 2011 NCAA Tournament.
It isn’t Gonzaga, for once. It’s the team that just keeps rolling along in its own neck of the woods… and can’t afford any slip-ups over the next month.

The St. Mary’s Gaels beat the Loyola Marymount Lions in West Coast Conference play from McKeon Pavillion in Moraga, California, on Saturday evening. The Gaels improved to 8-1 in WCC play, good for a game-and-a-half cushion over their nearest competitor, the second-place San Francisco Dons, who stand at 6-2 in the league. The loss dropped Loyola to just 1-8 in league competition, tied for worst in the conference.

Saint Mary’s is in a position very similar to Utah State in the Western precincts of the United States. SMC doesn’t have a single non-conference win of distinction, having lost to San Diego State, BYU and Vanderbilt this season. Utah State followed a similar line by losing to BYU and Georgetown. Yet, both teams are dominating their respective Western leagues. While SMC lays waste to the West Coast Conference, Utah State is 11-0 in the Western Athletic Conference. Both teams need to romp through the remainder of the regular season and make the final of their respective conference tournaments if they want to have a good chance at an at-large invite should they fail to win said tournaments. What makes the Saint Mary’s-Utah State comparison even more fascinating – and, moreover, relevant – is that the two teams will be paired up once again in the BracketBusters event on Feb. 19. These teams need to keep winning so that the BracketBusters clash can be a ticket-puncher, not an elimination game (there’s a huge difference between the two).

Matthew Dellavedova was 9-of-18 from the field, including four made three-pointers, for 23 points to lead head coach Randy Bennett’s squad to victory. Mickey McConnell flirted with a triple-double, pouring in 16 points, dishing out 10 assists, and pulling down 7 rebounds. The Gaels shot just under 50 percent on the evening, and had two other players, Rob Jones and Mitchell Young, pitch in 15 points apiece. The Gaels, as par for the course when they are successful, did a great job at spreading the floor and using a combination of both dribble penetration and three-point shooting to score the latest victory in a season that needs to maintain its present trajectory.

The out-gunned Lions stayed competitive by hitting on better than 50 percent from the field. Ashley Hamilton had 16 points for the Lions, who played without leading scorer Drew Viney who did not play because of a headache. Head coach Billy Bayno’s Lions have now lost seven of their past eight games.

Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer