MORAGA, Calif. — Saint Mary's Men's Basketball kicked off their second week of the season on Wednesday night with a home tilt against Southern University. All signs pointed towards a good night for the Gaels, and that's exactly how it panned out to be. For the 22^nd time in a row, the Gaels won at home, taking down the Jaguars 72-54 inside University Credit Union Pavilion, improving to 4-0 on the year while dropping Southern to 0-3 in three quality games.
 
NOVEMBER RAIN
Saint Mary's has been a strong three-point shooting team early in 2022-23 season, and that trend continued on Wednesday night. Against the Jaguars, the Gaels were 11-26 (42.3%) from three-point range, including a tidy 6-10 from that distance in the first half. Two of the primary culprits thi season for their shooting success are Alex Ducas and Aidan Mahaney, and they each made four threes in the win. For Ducas, it was part of a 4-7 performance from beyond the arc, while Mahaney was 4-8. Kyle Bowen was the third Gael to knock down a pair from distance, and he made both of his attempts. Saint Mary's has now made exactly one more three-pointer than the previous game in every game this season.
 
BAD OBSESSION
One of the strengths of the Gaels through four games has been their rebounding, and that was on display again against Southern. The Gaels finished the game with 42 rebounds, and were +19 in the rebounding margin. SMC nearly had as many offensive rebounds (14) as Southern did defensive rebounds (18). Mitchell Saxen led the way with nine, while six other Gaels had at least three. Through four games, Saint Mary's is +62 on the glass, averaging 41.5 rebounds per game while allowing just 26.
 
SO FINE
For the second time in four games, the Gaels had five different players score at least 10 points. Saxen paced the team with 17 points, setting a career-best that he's already done twice this year. Mahaney was second on the club with 16 points, which he did on the strength of his three-point shooting. Ducas added 14 to tie the most he's had in a game this year, and Logan Johnson was up to 11 in the victory. The fifth double-digit Gael was Bowen, who scored 10 for the first time this season, coming two points shy of his career-best.
 
BREAKDOWN
Saint Mary's tallied 15 assists on 23 made shots, the most helpers they've had in the game this season…Johnson led the way with six assists, tying a career-best that he set with Cincinnati in 2018…SMC limited a hot-shooting Southern squad to just 14 three-point attempts, their lowest mark on the season…this marks the first time this season the Gaels have had their opponent shoot better than them from three-point range and from the free throw line…aside from the double-digit scorers, the only other Gael to score was Harry Wessels, who scored four points.
 
UP NEXT
The Gaels will look to make it a perfect five-for-five to begin the season at home when they host Hofstra on Saturday evening at 5:30 pm. The game helps conclude a busy weekend on the campus of Saint Mary's College, as it is the last athletic event during Homecoming 2022. Following the game against Hofstra, the Gaels will head out on the road for the first time when they play two games over Thanksgiving in the Paycom Wooden Legacy, beginning on November 23.