WCC Basketball Fans

St. Mary’s 71, San Francisco 57

Mickey McConnell had 19 points, Matthew Dellavedova had 13, and the two guards combined for seven 3-pointers in leading St. Mary’s to a 71-57 win against San Francisco. In front of a sold-out McKeon Pavilion crowd in Moraga, California, the Gaels started off rivalry week on a positive note with the win, their ninth in a row this season and their 10th in a row against San Francisco. In the process, Gaels head coach Randy Bennett improved to 15-4 in his career against USF. The Dons were led by Michael Williams, who scored 17 points, but he was the first Don to hit double digits, and didn’t reach that mark until the six-minute mark in the second half.

The game itself was a tale of two halves. The first half featured the teams going back and forth; the Gaels opened up a 12-point lead midway through the half but the Dons battled back to make Thursday’s throwdown a six-point deficit at the half. At that point, the Dons were shooting 59 percent from the field and hold the Gaels to 47 percent, which was a bit surprising because the Gaels came in at third in the nation with a shooting average of 51.2 percent from the floor. The major difference was long-distance shooting: The Gaels were 6-of-12 while the Dons were just 1-of-9.

The Gaels came out firing in the second half, however, and quickly opened up a 20-point lead. Under the pressure of the Gaels’ perimeter defense, the Dons started falling apart. They rushed. They were forced into turnovers. Moreover, the pressure caused hurried shots and the hoisting of way too many jumpers. USF coach Rex Walters tried to calm down his team by using his time-outs the best he could, but it proved to be insufficient as they wilted against the Gaels’ pressure. Through the first twelve minutes of the half, the Dons had 11 points to 27 for the Gaels, a run that decided the game. The Dons made a late run, but it was too late and by the end they had emptied their bench and were playing five freshmen on the court at the final buzzer.

The Gaels, who would be perfect on the season if not for road losses to BYU and San Diego State (both ranked in the top 15 right now, it needs to be said), were by no means perfect. They came in averaging 85 points per game and barely broke 70 against the Dons. They finished shooting 45 percent from the field. St. Mary’s finishes off its three-game homestead with games against rival Santa Clara and then San Diego, a combined 1-4 in the West Coast Conference (the only win comes courtesy of a Santa Clara beating of San Diego on Thursday night). Both could qualify as ‘trap’ games, since the Gaels then face games at Vanderbilt, Gonzaga and Portland in the following weeks. For now, though, the Gaels are 3-0 in the conference and sit a half-game ahead of Gonzaga for first place.

While this was not an ideal result for the Dons, they at least showed signs of life. They had a modest three-game winning streak snapped, but played hard in a game where they were huge underdogs with a 21-point spread. They kept things close throughout the first half, and then made a lat run in the second half to keep the game from becoming a complete blowout. They sit at 1-1 in the WCC, good enough for third place. They’ll finish their three-game road trip on Saturday before returning home for Portland and Gonzaga, a two-game stretch that could give them a huge boost if they can pull it all together.

Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer