STOCKTON, Calif. - Saint Mary's Women's Basketball improved to 11-10 overall and 5-5 in WCC play in a 96-80 defeat of the University of the Pacific Tigers on Saturday.

The Gaels set the tone for the afternoon right off the opening tip as Ali Bamberger got possession and Tayla Dalton raced ahead for a layup. The Tigers would take a 6-5 lead a minute and half into the game, but Dalton would answer with a jumper to go up 7-6 and Saint Mary's would never trail again.
 
SMC would finish the first quarter up by nine at 24-15. They shot 53% from the field in the opening quarter – which would be their lowest shooting percentage in a quarter on the day – and were 3 of 6 from three-point range.
 
The second quarter was more of the same for Saint Mary's as they shot 58.3% from the field didn't commit a turnover in the entire quarter. The Gaels got a double-digit lead for good on pair of Bamberger free throws and expanded their lead to as many as 19 on a pair of Hannah Rapp free throws for a 49-30 halftime lead as they went 10 for 12 from the charity stripe in the period.
 
The Gaels started the second half with a beautiful back-door feed from Bamberger to Taycee Wedin who up-faked to get her defender in the air before using the glass on her layup. Saint Mary's would go up by 30 for their largest lead of the game on a Leia Hanafin layup with 1:42 to go in the quarter and finished the third up by 25. SMC shot 59% in a very fast-paced third frame the Gaels won by just six points, though it was their most dominant rebounding advantage with a 14-6 lead on the boards.
 
Saint Mary's saved their best-shooting quarter for the fourth as they shot 60% in the final period, though they did commit the most turnovers they had in a quarter with seven as some of the younger Gaels played big minutes in the fourth. But the bench unit never let the lead get below 15 points and still won the rebounding and turnover battle 8-5 and 9-7 respectively.
 
TOP PERFORMERS
Bamberger led the Gaels with 17 points on 6 of 8 shooting and 5 of 6 at the free-throw line. Dalton was right behind her with 15 points and Jade Kirisome had 14. Freshman Aspen Garrison scored a career 11 points on 5 of 6 shooting and Madeline Holland had 10 points to go along a team-leading five assists and six rebounds.
 
Wedin also finished with a season-high six rebounds and scored nine points. The Gaels new all-time leader in career three pointers hit another one, going 1 for 2 from downtown and that moved her into second place all by herself in the WCC's career three-point totals at 273, putting her in range of the conference career mark of 298.

Saint Mary's shot 57.4% overall, 7 of 20 (35%) from three-point range, and were 19 of 27 (74%) from the free-throw line, while out rebounding the Tigers 38-24.
 
UP NEXT
The win keeps the Gaels in a tie for fifth place with Santa Clara in the West Coast Conference Standings, who they will play on the road this Monday, February 7 at 6:00 p.m. The game is a rescheduling of a December 30 game that was postponed. The Gaels just defeated SCU on 78-73 at UCU Pavilion on Thursday.