MBK | Gaels Crowned WCC Champs With Win At USF
2/28/2016 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
SAN FRANCISCO — With a convincing 84-72 win at rival San Francisco Saturday, the Saint Mary's men's basketball team cemented its place as 2016 West Coast Conference champions behind a career performance by Calvin Hermanson.
The 2016 crown is the Gaels' third WCC championship in six years. Saint Mary's will be the No. 1 seed at the WCC Championship Tournament on March 5-8, in Las Vegas, thanks in part to a season sweep of Gonzaga, The Bulldogs also finished the regular season with a 15-3 WCC record and will be the No. 2 seed behind the Gaels.
We didn't see this one coming, and we didn't see this coming until last weekend when we went up there and won at Gonzaga," said Saint Mary's head coach Randy Bennett about the Gaels' path to the championship. "That put us in the mix, and we had control over our destiny at that point. That (winning at Gonzaga) especially makes this feel a little more special.
Our expectations were high, but it was to see how good we can get. We didn't know that this would happen."
Fans have one more chance this season to see the WCC champions play at McKeon Pavilion. The Gaels close their regular season at 7 p.m. Tuesday versus the 24-5 Grand Canyon 'Lopes. The game will not be televised, but will feature a live video webstream via GaelVision on SMCGaels.com (thew.tv). Tickets are available online at SMCGaels.com or by calling the SMC Athletic Ticket Office at (925) 631-GoTx (4689).
Hermanson led Saint Mary's with a career-high 24 points and a career-best six 3-pointers. He also had Dane Pineau was one point shy of tying his career high with 19 points. Emmett Naar also had 19 points with a perfect 10 for 10 performance from the free-throw line.
Felt pretty good," Hermanson said about his night. "I was struggling from 3 last game but I came out and once I hit my first one I could kind of tell it was going to be one of those nights. My teammates did a great job finding me. Emmett and Joe (Rahon) did a great job moving the ball and I got open looks and I was able to hit them tonight. It was nice."
Saint Mary's had 18 assists on 29 made field goals. Naar and Rahon combined for 11 helpers, with six different Gaels notching at least one. The Gaels were over 50 percent shooting (51.7 percent) for the second straight game and 17th time in 2015-16. SMC also shot a season-best 94.4 percent (17 for 18) from the free-throw line.
It was tough," said Hermanson about the team's preparation for Saturday's game. "After we got the win against Santa Clara we just couldn't wait to play this game. We could feel the momentum building after a tough road trip up north. We played well against Santa Clara and we just couldn't wait for this game, and I think we played like that tonight. We came out with a lot of energy."
San Francisco was led by Tim Derksen's 27 points. Derksen made five 3-pointers of his own as the Dons made a late push in the second half, getting as close as nine points after trailing by as many as 19. Devin Watson had 16 points and Uche Ofoegbu scored 14.
Two days after missing 16 3-pointers in a 25-point win over Santa Clara, the Gaels made seven treys in the first half alone – their entire total Thursday – and would go on to make nine in the game while shooting 46.7 percent from beyond the arc.
-->Mark Orr. "This is a very, very tough league; 10 wonderful institutions competing hard everyday. For us, for our college, athletics program, for our fans, it is very, very special to take home a West Coast Conference Championship. It is a testament to all the hard Coach Randy Bennett, coaching staff and all of these successful student-athletes have put into this season. We are so proud of them. We are going to savor it and enjoy winning the West Coast Conference Championship."
Neither team could miss from the tip-off. The Gaels and Dons went a combined 11 for 13 in the first four minutes with Saint Mary's holding a four-point advantage at 15-11 thanks to three 3-pointers in that span. Saint Mary's and San Francisco waged a close battle for the first 12 minutes of the game, only getting separated by more than five points for 18 seconds.
But the Gaels jumped on a Dons cold spurt to push their lead to 12. USF suddenly went cold in a three-point game (27-24), going 1 for 8 over a 4 minute, 18 seconds stretch while Saint Mary's went on an 11-2 run to lead 38-26 with less than two minutes to go before the break. SMC would go into the locker room with a 40-31 advantage.
Just an accumulation of all the hard work we've been through," said Hermanson about what winning the WCC title means to the team. "So many people have counted us out, you know, being a young team back in the summer, and we just put so much hard work into this this season. It feels great and we're not done yet."
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