Photo by: Saint Mary's Athletics / Tod Fierner
MBB | Top-5 Moments: Gaels Take Down Cal (#5)
3/23/2020 2:29:00 PM | Men's Basketball
SMCGaels.com is counting down the top-5 moments from the Saint Mary's 2019-20 men's basketball season. Be sure to check back every Monday to read the latest installment of the series.
MORAGA, Calif. — Tipping off the countdown of the top-5 moments from the 2019-20 season is one of Saint Mary's final games of the decade and their only true road contest in their non-conference schedule: a Dec. 14 matchup against the California Golden Bears.
Saint Mary's traveled through the Caldecott Tunnel for their third game with Cal in as many years. The Gaels had defeated their East Bay rivals in each of the two earlier matchups by double-figures, including a 13-point win last season in Moraga that proved to be Tommy Kuhse's coming-out party.
In the third meeting, Cal jumped out to an early 10-2 lead at the first media timeout as the Gaels missed their initial five shots of the ballgame. That wouldn't be the case for much longer however.
Immediately following the timeout called by head coach Randy Bennett, Saint Mary's shooters began heating up as they banged home 13 of their next 18 shots including nine made treys. Malik Fitts led the charge as he went
5-of-6 from deep in the first half and had 21 points at the halftime break.
The redshirt junior was scalding hot as he connected on three straight triples within a 2:17 span late in the half. Alex Ducas then got in on the 3-point parade with a couple corner threes to give SMC 15 consecutive points via the 3-ball.
The Gaels were up 45-29 at the break over the Bears and took their biggest lead of the game minutes into the second half on a Jordan Ford layup to go up 19.
As Fitts took control of the offense in the first half, Ford would return the favor in the final 20 minutes as he tallied 25 second-half points to finish the game with 32. At one point, the senior scored 13 straight points for the Gaels over a nearly 7-minute span to prevent Cal from getting back into the contest.
With 5:30 remaining in the game, the Bears' Grant Anticevich scored in the paint to cut Saint Mary's lead down to just eight. Ford replied with a made layup on the next possession which was countered by another good bucket by Anticevich. Ford came up big once again as he drilled a three 17 seconds later to put the Gaels back up by 11. A pair of free throws by Tanner Krebs a little less than a minute later would all but ice the win. The final score was 89-77.
"It's big to beat Cal," said Bennett after the win. "It's a little rivalry, we're only 10 miles apart. Cal is good now. They were down the last couple years but this year they're playing better defensively, a little older and those guys are growing up. We had to play well and we had two guys go off."
All told, Fitts and Ford contributed 60 of the team's 89 points as the Gaels improved to 10-2 on the season with the win. SMC shot 67 percent from deep (10-of-15) and knocked down 29 of their 33 free throws.
Other big contributors to the win were Tommy Kuhse, who scored nine and dished out five assists, and Dan Fotu, who scored seven while grabbing nine rebounds.
#GaelsRise — Join the Season Ticket Waitlist today to be part of the Gaels 20-21 season by clicking HERE. Current season ticket holders can renew their seats HERE and logging in at the top of the page. Email smctickets@stmarys-ca.edu with questions.
MORAGA, Calif. — Tipping off the countdown of the top-5 moments from the 2019-20 season is one of Saint Mary's final games of the decade and their only true road contest in their non-conference schedule: a Dec. 14 matchup against the California Golden Bears.
Saint Mary's traveled through the Caldecott Tunnel for their third game with Cal in as many years. The Gaels had defeated their East Bay rivals in each of the two earlier matchups by double-figures, including a 13-point win last season in Moraga that proved to be Tommy Kuhse's coming-out party.
In the third meeting, Cal jumped out to an early 10-2 lead at the first media timeout as the Gaels missed their initial five shots of the ballgame. That wouldn't be the case for much longer however.
Immediately following the timeout called by head coach Randy Bennett, Saint Mary's shooters began heating up as they banged home 13 of their next 18 shots including nine made treys. Malik Fitts led the charge as he went
5-of-6 from deep in the first half and had 21 points at the halftime break.
The redshirt junior was scalding hot as he connected on three straight triples within a 2:17 span late in the half. Alex Ducas then got in on the 3-point parade with a couple corner threes to give SMC 15 consecutive points via the 3-ball.
The Gaels were up 45-29 at the break over the Bears and took their biggest lead of the game minutes into the second half on a Jordan Ford layup to go up 19.
As Fitts took control of the offense in the first half, Ford would return the favor in the final 20 minutes as he tallied 25 second-half points to finish the game with 32. At one point, the senior scored 13 straight points for the Gaels over a nearly 7-minute span to prevent Cal from getting back into the contest.
With 5:30 remaining in the game, the Bears' Grant Anticevich scored in the paint to cut Saint Mary's lead down to just eight. Ford replied with a made layup on the next possession which was countered by another good bucket by Anticevich. Ford came up big once again as he drilled a three 17 seconds later to put the Gaels back up by 11. A pair of free throws by Tanner Krebs a little less than a minute later would all but ice the win. The final score was 89-77.
"It's big to beat Cal," said Bennett after the win. "It's a little rivalry, we're only 10 miles apart. Cal is good now. They were down the last couple years but this year they're playing better defensively, a little older and those guys are growing up. We had to play well and we had two guys go off."
All told, Fitts and Ford contributed 60 of the team's 89 points as the Gaels improved to 10-2 on the season with the win. SMC shot 67 percent from deep (10-of-15) and knocked down 29 of their 33 free throws.
Other big contributors to the win were Tommy Kuhse, who scored nine and dished out five assists, and Dan Fotu, who scored seven while grabbing nine rebounds.
#GaelsRise — Join the Season Ticket Waitlist today to be part of the Gaels 20-21 season by clicking HERE. Current season ticket holders can renew their seats HERE and logging in at the top of the page. Email smctickets@stmarys-ca.edu with questions.
Players Mentioned
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