No. 23 Saint Mary’s hopes to rediscover the form that earned it the West Coast Conference regular-season championship when the Gaels take on fourth-seeded Santa Clara in the WCC tournament semifinals Monday night in Las Vegas.
The Gaels (24-7) missed on a chance to finish with a perfect league record in their last game. Gonzaga essentially beat them at their game, playing superior halfcourt defense and offense in a 70-57 decision on March 2 that spoiled their senior night.
“They executed offensively at a way higher level than we did,” Gaels coach Randy Bennett said. “That’s a combination of us not being very good offensively and not very good defensively.”
It snapped a 16-game winning streak that dated back to Dec. 23, when Saint Mary’s lost 69-64 at home to Missouri State. But it didn’t detract from the fact that the Gaels overcame a shaky stretch during the nonconference schedule to fulfill preseason predictions that they would topple Gonzaga in the WCC.
Saint Mary’s didn’t necessarily change anything to go on its two-month run, either. It simply did what it does best — grind opponents into the ground with good execution on offense and force them to settle for poor shots when it was on defense.
The result was a bevy of postseason awards for the Gaels, including the league’s Player of the Year that went to junior point guard Augustas Marciulionis. He averaged 12.4 points and 5.1 assists, bumping those totals up to 14.1 ppg and 6.5 assists in league games. His 159 total assists are the most for a Saint Mary’s player in six years.
Bennett also won WCC Coach of the Year, while forward Mitchell Saxen was named the league’s Defensive Player of the Year after leading the WCC with 42 blocked shots. Leading scorer Aidan Mahaney (13.7 ppg) earned first team All-WCC honors for the second straight year.
While the Gaels got a triple-bye into the WCC semifinals, the Broncos (20-12) debuted in the conference tournament Saturday night with a 104-79 rout of San Diego. Adama-Alpha Bal delivered 24 points and six rebounds as they established a 51-34 halftime lead and never looked back.
“I’m always thrilled when I can watch my guys play with the kind of togetherness they displayed,” Santa Clara coach Herb Sendek said.
Perhaps the most remarkable stat from the Broncos’ win was that they thumped San Diego 55-25 on the glass. Their 39.8 rebounds per game rank 21st in Division I, just ahead of Saint Mary’s 39.7.
Sendek said Saint Mary’s is one of the toughest teams in the country.
“It starts with defense and rebounding for them,” Sendek said. “And offensively, they don’t beat themselves. They’re real patient. They do a tremendous job of reading the defense and taking what is available.”
Bal paces Santa Clara’s scoring attack at 14.8 ppg, while Carlos Marshall adds 12.8 and hits 41.3 percent of his 3-pointers.
In the teams’ earlier meetings back in January, Saint Mary’s cruised 73-49 on the road before holding off a Santa Clara comeback to win 82-77 at home.
–Field Level Media
