SAN DIEGO — No. 17 Saint Mary's men's basketball kicked off the second-to-last week of the regular season with their third-straight game away from home, taking on the Toreros of San Diego. Needing a win to stay atop the West Coast Conference standings, the Gaels took care of business with a strong road showing, taking control early and holding on late in a 64-59 win. With the victory, the Gaels improve to 23-5 (12-1) while dropping San Diego to 11-17 (4-10).
 
BACK TO THE BASICS
While Saint Mary's has certainly been winning a lot lately, they haven't played their best basketball, and that starts on the defensive end. They got back to those basics on Thursday night, with an emphasis on shutting down a potentially potent USD offense. The numbers reflected that for the Gaels, with their best defensive performance in the month of February. SMC held San Diego to just 20 points in the first half, and 8-30 (26.7%) from the floor, while the Toreros struggled at just 2-14 from range. That set the tone for the night, as the Gaels were able to use that defense to get things going offensively later in the half.
 
TURN THE GOOSE LOOSE
When the Gaels started to pull away in the back half of the first stanza, Augustas Marciulionis was leading the charge offensively. He helped the Gaels close the first half on a 14-0 run by going off for 11 total points in the opening half, including the first eight points of the run. He was on fire from distance, making all three of his shots from three-point range during the first half, and was probably the best guard on the floor. For comparison, Marciulionis had only scored 11 points in his last three games combined.
 
QUAD AT THE TOP
There were several Gaels who had strong performances in the win. Mitchell Saxen might have had the best night of the bunch, finishing with 17 points and 10 rebounds for his eighth double-double of the year. Aidan Mahaney got his numbers up in what seemed like a quiet game, but he wound up with 13 points with three rebounds and three assists. The first half from Marciulionis got him into double-digits, as mentioned above, and Alex Ducas came close to a double-double of his own, with eight points and eight rebounds.
 
TIGHT DOWN THE STRETCH
Saint Mary's led by as many as 23 with less than 12 minutes to go, and yet the game came down to the final minutes. The Toreros defense clamped down on the Gaels as they went over nine minutes without making a field goal down the stretch. During that span, the Toreros offense heated up, and used a 10-0 run to make it 62-56 with less than three minutes to go. After both teams traded empty possessions, the Gaels had the ball with 40 seconds to go. A pair of turnovers from SMC led to a layup and a free throw and it was 62-59 with 4.2 seconds remaining. This time around, the Gaels came up empty at the free throw line and a desperate full-court heave hit the backboard as time expired, and the Gaels escaped.
 
THE MAKINGS OF A WIN
The Gaels continue to be one of the best rebounding teams in the country, and they were +7 on the glass Thursday night…it was a strong night SMC in terms of assists, as they finished the game with 17 assists on 23 made field goals…Saxen led the way with four assists while every Gael who played more than one minute had an assist…the Gaels ran their winning streak over San Diego to 18 games.
 
UP NEXT
The final home stand of the season kicks off on Saturday night as the Gaels host BYU at 7:00 pm inside University Credit Union Pavilion. This will be the final time these teams meet in the regular season as conference rivals, with BYU set to depart the conference following the end of the year. Bay Alarm is the presenting sponsor for the game, and the first 500 students in attendance will receive a red Gaels Basketball t-shirt as part of Paint Moraga Red Night. Dave Feldman and Dan Dickau will have the call on ESPN2.