MORAGA, Calif. –  Saint Mary's collected a 24-point victory over Hawaii on Friday to advance to the second round of the WNIT. The Gaels will host Pepperdine on Sunday at 5 p.m.

HOW IT HAPPENED

• QUARTER 1 | Sydney Raggio got the game going for the Gaels after scoring the first four points of the period. Saint Mary's held Hawaii from scoring for over three minutes before they were able to put up their first two points. Raggio continued to lead the Gaels' efforts as she went 3-for-4 in the first half of the period. Sam Simons and Carly Turner followed suit as they each scored their first points of the game to advance the Gaels' lead to 12-10 over the Rainbow Wahine. Megan McKay added the final two points for Saint Mary's to close out the period with a score of 15-14 with Hawaii in the lead.

 

• QUARTER 2 | Hawaii put up three points to get the second period started before Tyra Moe drained the first trey of the game to cut the Gaels' deficit to just one point. Maddy Holland chipped in a free-throw followed by a layup by McKay to tie up the game at 20-20. Both teams went point-for-point until the Gaels took control and went on a 10-0 run to improve the score to 27-20. Taycee Wedin put up strong offense as she collected eight points, including two threes in just the last two minutes of the period. After scoring 19 points in the quarter, Saint Mary's ended the period with a 10-point lead atop Hawaii.

 

• QUARTER 3 | To begin the third period, Raggio reached double-digits after scoring a layup to hold the Gaels' 10-point lead. McKay landed back-to-back layups, which forced Hawaii to call their first timeout of the period. Following the timeout, McKay continued to hold her momentum after adding two more points to the board to improve the score to 43-29 with Saint Mary's in the lead. Wedin drilled her third triple of the game followed by another layup to reach double-digit points for the Gaels. With just two minutes left in the period, Simons picked up two points to bring SMC to a 21-point lead. Wedin led the Gaels for majority of the second half as she recorded nine points to collect a career-high, 17 points. Saint Mary's ended the period on a 17-0 run for their biggest run of the game with a 54-29 lead over the Rainbow Wahine.

 

• QUARTER 4 | Raggio and McKay each chipped in two layups to get the fourth period started. McKay would go on to score five points to give the Gaels a 21-point lead and tie her career-high in blocks with three. During the quarter, the senior picked up her tenth double-double of the season with 16 points and 10 rebounds. Simons put up another layup to add two more points to the board before Brianna Simonich collected her first points of the game off a layup. With just under a minute left of action, Emily Codding recorded the final two points to give the Gaels the 67-43 victory over Hawaii.

NUMBERS TO KNOW
 

• 17: Career-high of points for Taycee Wedin.
• 10: Number of double-doubles for Megan McKay this season.
• 3: Tied career-high number of blocks for McKay.
• 7: Tied for the second most blocks in the season for Saint Mary's.
• 42: SMC outrebounded Hawaii 42-37.

QUOTABLE

"We just matched their physicality," said senior Megan McKay. "The first quarter took us off guard, but I think once we settled in, we were able to set the tempo and that made a huge difference. It's gonna be a good game against Pepperdine because both teams really want to win. They have lots of skilled players and a different game style than we're used to, so it will be a good challenge for us."

"The biggest thing for tonight was that we did a good job defensively," said head coach Paul Thomas. "We were locked in today and after coming off of a 13-day resting period, I was really pleased with our intensity."

"I think we were really motivated to come out tonight coming off of our last loss," said freshman Taycee Wedin. "The game started out super aggressive on both ends and once we started making our run, we just really pushed the ball."

COMING UP

Saint Mary's will host Pepperdine on Sunday at 5 p.m. for the second round of the WNIT.