SANTA CLARA, Calif. — It took all the way until the final calendar day of 2022 but Saint Mary's Men's Basketball played a true road game. In a New Year's Eve clash with the Santa Clara Broncos, the Gaels had to go through the ringer to escape with a victory, but they did. SMC trailed at half time but then pulled ahead by as many as 14 in the second half before hanging on to a tight 67-64 win over the Broncos. The win brings Saint Mary's to 12-4 and 2-0 in WCC play for the first time since the 2017-18.
 
FEELS LIKE 2022
When these two teams met in Santa Clara in February, the game had a similar feel to it in the first half. Saint Mary's struggled to get the offense going early, but their defense was able to keep them in the game and keep the Broncos close. SCU took a 16-10 lead midway through the first half, but the Gaels battled back to tie it on multiple occasions. An Augustas Marciulionis three-pointer with 3:47 remaining knotted the score up at 20-20, and then SMC took brief, two-point leads on Marciulionis buckets on the following possessions, going up 24-22. Despite holding a 22-10 advantage in the paint, the Gaels still trailed at the break 29-28.
 
TURNING OF THE TIDES
Saint Mary's came out in the second half with some energy, and for the first five minutes, they put their offensive woes behind them. Aidan Mahaney found some life and burst into double-digits with seven of the first 14 points for the Gaels in the second half, including his first three-pointer made on the night. Then Kyle Bowen started to get rolling, scoring five points and grabbing six rebounds in the first five minutes. One of his baskets was a three-point play, and just like that, the Gaels held a 42-36 lead, their largest of the game.
 
RUNNING INTO THE NEW YEAR
The biggest run in the game was easily the difference between the Gaels winning and losing, as Saint Mary's had a 20-5 run midway through the second half that lasted nearly 10 minutes. It started with a Mahaney layup at 17:10 and then Bowen took over with his run of five points. Then the triples started cooking, as Alex Ducas, Mahaney, and Joshua Jefferson all hit three-pointers to go up 55-41 and bring the Leavey Center to a hush.
 
HOLDIN' ON
After the Gaels got up by as many as 14 points in the second half, things got a bit tighter down the stretch as two of the best teams in the conference battled it out. The Broncos made it a four-point game with just 3:26 remaining. SMC briefly pushed it back up to nine points after a Ducas corner three and a pair of free throws from Mitchell Saxen with 2:17, but then with less than 40 second remaining, it was back down to a three-point game. That's when free throws shined for the Gaels, as Logan Johnson hit a pair of clutch free throws with 11 seconds left to effectively ice the game. Despite recent free throw struggles, the Gaels went 10-13 in the second half.
 
UP NEXT
The Gaels will take a brief hiatus from West Coast Conference play and host their final non-conference game of the regular season when they host the Academy of Art on Tuesday, January 3 inside University Credit Union Pavilion. This DII game will be the only midweek game on the docket for the Gaels in the first week of January, as they host Portland on Saturday, January 7 as part of a doubleheader with the women.