MORAGA, Calif. — In the beginning of the 2023 portion of the Saint Mary's schedule, the Gaels returned to non-conference play, taking on the Academy of Art. In their final non-conference game of the regular season, Saint Mary's aimed to fine tune a few things for the remaining months of the season. SMC used a good rotation all night long to their advantage, and got past the Urban Knights with in a 84-64 win. Saint Mary's is now 13-4 while dropping the Urban Knights to 9-5.
 
KNIGHTED
The Urban Knights came out ready to play early in the game, scoring 15 points on their first six possessions of the game. The saving grace for the Gaels was their offense was responding, matching the Academy of Art on nearly every possession. They were able to find soft spots from beyond the arc, knocking down eight three-pointers in the first half, going 8-15 from range. It shouldn't come as much surprise that Aidan Mahaney and Alex Ducas were two of the hottest shooters from distance, with Mahaney going 3-5 from beyond the arc en route to 15 first half points. Ducas wasn't too shabby either, scoring 13 of the team's first 25 points and going 3-4 on 3FGs. The offense put up 43 points in the first half, their second-most in a game this season.
 
LUKE LIGHTING IT UP
A big difference in the game came in the second half when Luke Barrett made his presence felt. After playing solid minutes in the first half, he became a shining star in the second half. Barrett needed just 13 minutes in the second half to rack up 15 points, a new career-best, while making a trio of three-pointers. His first points came on back-to-back corner threes by the Saint Mary's bench, and then followed it up with a slam dunk off of an Art U turnover. That paved the way for Barrett to play a majority of the final minutes of the game, which he used to tack on seven more points for the new career-best.
 
SEPARATION
It wasn't until that outburst by Barrett that the Gaels were able to truly get separation on the Urban Knights. Prior to those eight points by Barrett, the Knights had made it a seven-point game at 57-50 with 10:38 left to play. Barrett's buckets pushed it up to 15 and then the Gaels later used an 8-0 run to make it 76-56 with five minutes to play, with layups from Barrett, Kyle Bowen, and Joshua Jefferson. As a matter of fact, the Gaels never led by more than eight points in the first half.
 
AMONG OTHER NUMBERS
The Gaels finished the game with 18 assists on 29 made shots, their most assists in a game since January 22, 2022 against LMU…Mahaney was the leading scorer for the second game in a row with 19 points, including a game-best 15 in the first half…Saint Mary's knocked down 12-25 from beyond the arc, their third-best percentage on threes this season…Bowen reached 15 rebounds for the second game in a row, giving him 11.3 rebounds per game over the last six contests…the SMC defense was great in the second half, holding the Urban Knights to just seven made baskets and 26.9% shooting from the field.
 
UP NEXT
Saint Mary's returns to West Coast Conference play for the remainder of the regular season, with their next game against Portland on Saturday evening inside University Credit Union Pavilion. Tip-off is scheduled for 6:00 pm on the WCC Network, with Alex Jensen providing the simulcast. The Gaels won their only matchup against the Pilots last year (in Portland), and have not last to the Pilots in their last 10 games, dating back to 2015.