SAN FRANCISCO — On a stormy day in the Bay Area, Saint Mary's Men's Basketball created quite the storm of their own on the road. Inside War Memorial at the Sobrato Center against the USF Dons, Saint Mary's used an efficient offensive night and a lot of three-pointers early in the game to take down the Dons by a final score of 78-61. With the win, Saint Mary's remains unbeaten in WCC play with a record of 5-0 (16-4 overall), while sending the Dons to 12-9 (1-5 WCC).
 
WHOLE LOT OF RAIN
It was a rainy evening in the Bay Area, and both teams were feeling the effects in the first half. There were a combined 11 made three-pointers in the first half, and while it was the Dons who got cooking early, it was the Gaels who took over late in the half. Part of that was thanks to a 19-3 run to close out the final 6:30 of the first half, where the Gaels turned a deficit into a 39-25 halftime lead. Two Gaels were responsible for all the action from downtown, with Kyle Bowen and Aidan Mahaney lighting up the scoreboard. Bowen was held scoreless on Thursday against LMU, but exploded for 12 points in the first half on 4-5 from beyond the arc. Aidan Mahaney wasn't far off the total points pace in the first half (10 points), but he made of his triples. Saint Mary's was 6-10 in the first half on threes, and USF was 5-11.
 
WEATHERING THE STORM
The Dons came out in the second half strong and cut the SMC lead to just 10 points, but it never got below 10 as the Gaels kept the lead at a healthy margin. USF trailed by 10 with just over nine minutes remaining again until a 9-0 Saint Mary's run put the game out reach. Mahaney hit a three-pointer to kickstart the run, and then Logan Johnson followed with three-straight layups to make it 65-46 Gaels with 4:30 to go. Again it got down to 10 points with 2:41 remaining, but then Augustas Marciulionis hit a three-pointer by the bench and then a quick steal led to a wide-open Johnson dunk in transition put the game on ice.
 
ONSLAUGHT FROM THE STARTERS
Bench points aren't an indication of how one team plays by any stretch, but on Saturday night, it served as a statistic to show just how good the Gaels starters were. The Marciulionis three-pointer with 2:12 remaining produced the first points scored by the SMC bench in the entire game, as the scoring came exclusively from the starters. Johnson led the way with a team-best 24 points, including 14 in the second half, on 10-15 from the floor. He added seven rebounds and six assists to go with it in one of his best games of the season. Mahaney finished with 21 points on 5-7 from beyond the arc, the second-straight game with 20+ points for the freshman. Bowen finished the game with 14 and Mitchell Saxen added 13 to account for all but six of the team's points.
 
AMONG OTHER NUMBERS
The three bench points scored by the Gaels are the fewest they've had in game this season…despite finishing the game even in offensive rebounds (five apiece), the Gaels held an 8-0 advantage in second chance points…SMC finished the game with impressive offensive numbers, shooting 50.8% from the field and 52.4% from three-point range…Saint Mary's added 14 assists on their 30 made baskets...this is the first time since 2020 that the Gaels have scored at least 76 points in four-straight games (Feb. 22-Mar. 7, 2020)..
 
UP NEXT
Saint Mary's will head out on the road for their first West Coast Conference game outside of the Bay Area next week when they head down to Malibu for a date against Pepperdine on Thursday night. The Gaels took on Pepperdine twice last season and beat them on both occasions, including a 77-62 win at the Firestone Fieldhouse on January 13. The game will be televised on ESPNU.