LAS VEGAS — In the second round of the 2021 UCU WCC Basketball Tournament, seventh-seeded Saint Mary's opened up their portion of tournament play against sixth-seeded Pacific. These teams closed out the regular season one week ago, with Pacific defeating the Gaels by 19. SMC proved that this week is a new week, coming out of the gates hot, aggressive, and with stifling defense. The end result was an impressive upset win for Saint Mary's, 69-55, over Pacific to advance to the tournament quarterfinals on Saturday afternoon.
 
IT'S ELECTRIC
The tables turned from one week ago, as Pacific dominated the first half against the Gaels in Stockton. On Friday, Saint Mary's took control late in the first half and never ceased. From the final minutes of the first quarter to the early stages of the third quarter, the Gaels were on a 30-3 run and held Pacific to just 1-18 from the floor. In the final 8:17 of the second, the Gaels held the Tigers without a field goal, while running on the Tigers 17-1. Saint Mary's also made four triples in the quarter, with Taycee Wedin knocking down a pair as she came alive in the quarter.
 
GET THE BALL INSIDE
A story all afternoon long was the Gaels getting the ball inside the paint with some great backdoor cutting. A team that often is undersized compared to its opponents, Saint Mary's was nearly even in points in the paint with Pacific, scoring 24 points in that area. 11 of those 12 shots in the paint were on layups, an area the Gaels had a decisive advantage in over Pacific, who missed 15 layups as a team.
 
GRABBING BOARDS
When Saint Mary's wins, they often rebound well, and that was again the case in the second round of the WCC tournament. Saint Mary's was plus-ten in the rebounding department, out-rebounding Pacific 41-31. So many Gaels contributed in that area, with Brianna Simonich leading Saint Mary's with ten rebounds, including four on the offensive glass. Wedin also set a career-best with eight rebounds (she was just three points shy of a career-best as well), while Amy West grabbed seven.
 
HANGING ON
The massive lead Saint Mary's built up early in the game nearly didn't last, as Pacific went on a run that eclipsed eight minutes and featured a 19-3 advantage in favor of the Tigers. Saint Mary's hit a few massive plays right after that run to keep the Tigers at bay, with Emily Codding going to the paint and hitting an and-one for a three-point play, to be followed by the first three-pointer of the day from Simonich, to keep the Gaels up by double-digits. When the Tigers got into foul mode late in the game, Saint Mary's continued to be strong, going 16-18 for the game from the line to ice it.
 
UP NEXT
By virtue of the win, Saint Mary's has advanced to the quarterfinals of the UCU WCC Basketball Tournament, which will be tomorrow afternoon against third-seeded San Francisco. Tip-off for the game will be at 2:00 pm on BYU TV and the WCC Network, with an audio-only feed on TuneIn, featuring Alex Jensen on the broadcast. The winner of this game will head to the semifinals on Monday afternoon against BYU.