LAS VEGAS — Monday evening marked the end of an era, with No. 16 Saint Mary's and BYU meeting for the final time as conference rivals. With the stakes even higher in the 2023 University Credit Union West Coast Conference Basketball Tournament semifinals, both teams were vying for another championship bid. The top-seeded Gaels flexed their muscles early and navigated a strong push from the fifth-seeded Cougars in the second half to hang on and win 76-69 to advance to the WCC championship game. Saint Mary's is now 26-6 on the season, equaling their win total from last year.
 
LATE FIRST HALF SWING
Saint Mary's had a pair of runs in the first half that gave them enough cushion to pull ahead, but it was the way the half ended that provided a huge boost for SMC. The Gaels got the final 10 points of the half and held BYU scoreless over the final 4:54. Joshua Jefferson was a spark plug off the bench to start that run, hitting a three and then a pair of free throws. With the Gaels leading 32-20, Aidan Mahaney hit a three-pointer with 11 seconds on the clock that wound up being a pivotal moment in the game, as Gideon George for BYU was then called for a technical foul that gave Alex Ducas two free throws, which he made. That made it a 37-20 game at the break, and effectively became a five-point play for the Gaels.
 
TWO BIG PERFORMANCES
Monday night was a big night for a pair of Gaels who were named to the All-WCC team last week. The first half of the game belonged to Mahaney, who led all players with 12 first half points. By contrast, he had scored just two points in the first half against BYU all season. Mahaney finished the game with 18, second most on the team. The second half of the game, and the final box score, was dominated by Ducas, who paced all players in the game with 23 points and led the Gaels with seven boards. Of those 23, 14 points came in the second half, where he was 3-4 from beyond the arc. It is the third 20-plus point performance of the season for Ducas, and the Gaels needed every one of them.
 
WEATHERING A STORM
It looked like Saint Mary's was going to blow the doors off the game in the second half, as the Gaels pushed their lead up to 26 points with left than 15 minutes in the game. That's when BYU opened up a lengthy 39-16 run, which made it just a seven-point game with 3:31 remaining. That's when free throws became a factor for Saint Mary's, as seven of their final nine points came from the free throw line to help ice the game. BYU did make it a three-point game with 32 seconds on the clock, but the Gaels broke a press and found Kyle Bowen wide open down low for an easy layup to make it 79-64. Two more defensive stands closed it out for the Gaels, advancing to the WCC championship game again.
 
AMONG OTHER NUMBERS
The victory over BYU puts the Gaels at 18-11 against the Cougars while both teams were members of the WCC, and now 3-1 against BYU in the WCC Tournament…Saint Mary's shot 51.1% from the floor, tied for the sixth-best shooting performance by the Gaels in a WCC Tournament game since 2010…after holding BYU to just 30.4% shooting in the first half and 20 points, the Cougars exploded for 64.3% shooting and 49 points, the most scored on the Gaels in a half this season…behind the 23 from Ducas and 18 from Mahaney, Mitchell Saxen scored 12 points and Logan Johnson had 10 with five assists…the Gaels also won the battle beyond the arc, shooting 46.7% (7-15) while limiting BYU to 28.6% (4-14).
 
QUOTABLES
"You don't want to have to try and beat BYU a third time. They are pretty talented and just won two games in this tournament, so it was a tough game. We played well for probably the first 25 minutes and then lost focus a little bit…we maybe got some momentum, then gave some hope, and it was a two-possession game. We need to get better at closing out things and handling things a little more mature as far as when it gets testy." – Randy Bennett
 
"It shows how grit to our team afforded us a chance to win this game and those games are sometimes good, you know? They had two games before us and this was our first one, so it felt good to grind one out and put us in the right spot for the next game. It shows a lot of experience from the guys. Not the way we wanted to win, but we'll take it." – Alex Ducas
 
UP NEXT
The 2023 UCU WCC Tournament championship game will take place on Tuesday, March 7 at 6:00 pm on ESPN. Saint Mary's will await the winner of No. 9 Gonzaga and San Francisco in the second semifinal game, with a likely matchup against Gonzaga on the way. Those two programs have met in three of the last four conference championship games, with the Gaels winning one of those back in 2019. Both teams split their regular season matchups this season, with the home team winning on each occasion.