LAS VEGAS – Saint Mary's Women's Basketball led the entire way in a convincing win over LMU in round one of the WCC Tournament, advancing to the second round with a 74-43 win over the Lions.
 
The Gaels came into the game relishing the opportunity to show they could beat LMU and even the score after the Lions eliminated SMC from last year's conference tournament, and they did just that on Thursday afternoon.
 
Saint Mary's flipped the script from last year when they jumped out to a 7-0 lead to start the game after Taycee Wedin hit her 400th career three pointer to cap off the opening run. They'd get the lead up to 12 at 16-4 after a Tayla Dalton pull-up jumper in the lane, but LMU would got on a run of their own from there as the Gaels tried to get some rest for their starters.
 
The Lions would trim it down to a three-point lead to end the first quarter, but the Gaels would pour it right back on to start the second. Another three from Wedin would push it back to double digits at 30-20 with just under three minutes to go in the half, as SMC's defenders moved their feet well and stayed in front of the Lions top scorers who thrive in isolation sets to keep LMU to just five points in the quarter.
 
Wedin would score 14-straight points for the Gaels to finish the second quarter, giving her 21 in first half alone and putting Saint Mary's up 38-20 at the break.
 
The Gaels would extend their lead to 22 points just four minutes into the second half on a driving layup from Hanna Rapp to make it 50-28. Saint Mary's would hold serve in the third, maintaining their 18-point lead when Leia Hanafin stole the ball after the Lions came up with a rebound and laid it in at the buzzer to make it 55-37.
 
The fourth quarter would be similar to the second, as SMC would only allow the Lions to score six points in the period, while scoring 19 themselves. The Gaels would go up by 31 points for the first time on the night with a Hanafin steal led to a two-on-none fast break finished off by Dalton for a 70-39 lead that officially put the game away.
 
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
Taycee Wedin finished with 25 points as her big first half freed up her teammates to take over in the second half. That total propelled her to fifth all time in program history in points scored with 1,717, passing WCC Hall of Honor member Anja Bordt whose number was retired by Saint Mary's. Wedin is now just the 13th player in NCAA history to hit 400 three pointers, and is just one of three active players to do so. She was 5 of 8 from deep which puts her at 404 three pointers and was 9 of 14 overall from the field.
 
Bamberger finished with 14 points and nine rebounds, leaving her just short of her 19th double-double as a Gael. She now has 975 career points scored and 595 career rebounds. Tayla Dalton finished with 12 points on 6 of 10 shooting.
 
Hanafin led the team in assists with seven and tied her career high in blocked shots with three.
 
UP NEXT
The Gaels will take on Pacific in round two of the WCC Tournament at 2:30 pm on Friday. Saint Mary's split the season series with the Tigers, but they are another team SMC would want another shot at, after Pacific won the season finale in Moraga, Calif. to take the sixth seed in the conference tourney.