Men's Basketball Falls to Gonzaga 73-49

Thursday, February 13

Spokane, WA

7:00 PM

Saint Mary's College of California

*at Gonzaga

2/13/2003 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball

Feb. 13, 2003

Box Score

Spokane, WA - Blake Stepp scored 28 points to pace the Gonzaga Bulldogs to a 73-49 victory over the Saint Mary's men's basketball team on Thursday night in a West Coast Conference game from the Martin Centre in Spokane, WA. Jonathan Sanders led the Gaels with a career-high 13 points. With the loss Saint Mary's falls to 11-11 overall and 4-5 in WCC action, Gonzaga improves to 18-6 overall and 9-1 in conference action.

The loss for Saint Mary's is the third straight conference loss, and gives SMC its first three-game skid of the season. The 49 points scored by the Gaels is the lowest total of the season. Gonzaga shot 40 percent (22-55) from the field while the SMC shot 37 percent (16-43) from the floor. The Bulldogs held the advantage on the boards, outrebounding the Gaels 38-27.

Tyler Herr matched Sanders with 11 points as he hit 3-of-5 shots from three-point land, while going 2-for-2 from the foul line. Frederic Adjiwanou added nine points and four rebounds for the Gaels. En route to 28 points, Stepp hit on 7-of-11 attempts from the floor, hit 4-of-6 threes and was 10-for-10 from the foul line. Following Stepp's game-high 28 points, Cory Violette added 16 points and five boards and Ronny Turiaf had 11 points and matched Violette with five boards.

After Gonzaga opened a 6-0 lead to start the game, Saint Mary's pulled even at 8-8 following five straight points by Adam Caporn three minutes into the half. The Bulldogs would go on a 19-3 run to open its lead to 27-11 with 10:27 until the intermission. The Gaels cut the 16-point lead in half following two threes by Tyler Herr and four points from Jonathan Sanders.

GU regained its 16-point advantage (39-23) with five minutes remaining, before opening its biggest lead of the half to 19 points (45-25) with 1:29 remaining in the half. The 'Zags held a 47-29 lead at halftime as Blake Stepp had 18 points in the first 20 minutes.

Gonzaga scored the first 15 points of the second half to open a 62-29 lead with 11:44 remaining. Saint Mary's missed its first six shots from the floor and scored its first basket of the half on a on a jumper by Samuel Saint-Jean with 11 minutes remaining. GU opened its lead to 37 points (70-33) with 8:30 left to play.

Saint Mary's will continue West Coast Conference action when they complete the two-game road trip at Portland on Saturday. The game will tip-off at 7:07 PM in the Chiles Center on the Portland campus.