Men's Basketball Rolls to 75-51 Victory over Portland State

Saturday, December 7

McKeon Pavillion

7:05 PM

Saint Mary's College of California

Portland State

Men's Basketball Rolls to 75-51 Victory over Portland State

12/7/2002 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball

Dec. 7, 2002

Box Score

Moraga, CA - Daniel Kickert scored a career-high 19 points to pace the Saint Mary's College men's basketball team to a 75-51 victory over the Portland State Vikings on Saturday night. In front of 1,987 fans at McKeon Pavilion, four Gaels scored in double figures and Frederic Adjiwanou notched his first career double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds.

Following Kickert's 19-point effort, Ross Benson scored 12 points on 5-of-9 shooting from the floor. Samuel Saint-Jean scored a season-high 11 points and Adjiwanou chipped in with 10. Portland State's Jeb Ivey led the Vikings with 19 points, matching Kickert for game-high honors. With the win Saint Mary's improves to 4-2 on the season and Portland State falls to 1-4 overall.

Saint Mary's used a 16-4 run over the first six minutes of the game to open a commanding lead, and never looked back. After Portland State cut the SMC lead to 16-9 with 12:10 remaining in the half, Saint Mary's would use an 8-0 run to extend its lead to 24-9. Kickert's jumper with 3:32 remaining in the half gave Saint Mary's its largest lead in the first session, 33-16, with just over three minutes left. Ross Benson's three-pointer with 38 ticks gave SMC a 15-point (38-23) advantage at halftime.

After opening the lead to 20 points (44-40), just two minutes into the second half, the Vikings would score the next six points to cut the lead to 14 points, the smallest second half lead for SMC. Back-to-back threes by freshman Scott O'Hara would give Saint Mary's a 59-36 lead with 8:11 remaining. Benson's dunk with 1:05 remaining put an exclamation point on the game, and if that wasn't enough, Adjiwanou's first career three with 25 seconds remaining gave SMC a 26-point lead.

As a team the Gaels shot 44.1 percent (26-59) from the field and continued to light-it-up from behind the arc, converting 10-of-17 (55.6%) attempts from three-point range. Samuel Saint-Jean hit 2-of-3 from long range, marking a new career high for him. SMC forward's Benson, Kickert and Adjiwanou were a perfect 4-for-4 from behind the arch, and O'Hara was 2-for-4 from downtown.

Defensively, Saint Mary's held Portland State to 36.2 percent shooting for the game, and just 29.2 percent in the first half. PSU shot 25.0 percent from behind the arc. The Gaels held a slight advantage on the boards, out-rebounding the Vikings 37-34.

Tyler Herr and Chase Poole, the team's top two scorers, where held to five and three points, respectively. Both players came into the game averaging over 15 points per game. Herr added six rebounds, and Poole chipped in with a team-high four steals and added two assists.

Saint Mary's returns to action on Saturday, December 14 when it travels to Stanford. The game, which can be seen on KRON Channel-4, is scheduled to tip-off at 7:00 PM in Maples Pavilion. Stanford enters the game with a 4-1 record after advancing to the final game of the preseason NIT. The only loss for the Cardinal is a 74-57 loss to North Carolina on November 29.