PALM DESERT, Calif. — The Gaels (7-0) feasted on Thanksgiving night, not on turkey, but on Trojan, as Saint Mary's dominated USC (5-2) on both sides of the basketball en route to a 71-36 throttling, for their first win over the former Pac-12 turned Big-10 opponent in program history. The 7-0 start is the seventh in program history, and the first since the 2013-14 campaign.
USC kept things tight for the first 14 minutes and change, with neither team leading by more than one possession in that opening stretch. That changed when Ashton Hardaway buried a corner three with 5:22 in the first half, giving Saint Mary's a 23-19 lead. From that point, the Gaels would go on a 9-2 run to close out the half, taking an 11 point lead into the halftime break, 32-21. With nine points and four rebounds, Paulius Murauskas led the first half charge for the Gaels. Murauskas was the leading scorer for Saint Mary's at the half, but fell short of being the team's leading rebounder by one to Luke Barrett, who played the entire first half without leaving the court. Mitchell Saxen chipped in five points and four rebounds, while Jordan Ross added five points and a couple of assists. At the time, the 21 points allowed in a half was the third fewest that the Gaels had allowed all season (more on this later).
While the end of the first half was momentous, it paled in comparison to the start of the second half, where the Gaels opened things up to a 35 point lead on a 32-7 scoring stretch over the first 13:30 of the frame. The lead would balloon to as large as 37, before ultimately returning to a 35 point margin of victory, 71-36. The second half belonged to Jordan Ross, who led or tied for the team lead with 10 points, three rebounds, two assists, one steal and one block. Augustas Marciulionis added seven second half points to go along with three rebounds, two assists and a steal, as the starting Gael backcourt sliced and diced their way through the Trojans defense to shoot 7-9 from the field in the second stanza. While the offense did enough to carry the Gaels to an easy victory throughout the second half, it was the defense that shined brightest. The Gaels forced six second half Trojan turnovers, turning those into 12 points. When USC was able to get a shot off, the SMC defense was so tight that there was not an inch of breathing room to get a clean look, as the Trojans connected on just four of 23 shot attempts in the second half.
Jordan Ross finished as the Gaels leading scorer, setting a new career-high with 15 points. The Pleasant Grove, Utah native did all of his damage in the painted area, shooting 6-9 from the field, including 5-6 from the field in the second half, all within 10 feet of the hoop. Ross also led the Gaels with four assists and a blocked shot. Countymen Augustas Marciulionis and Paulius Murauskas each added 11 points, with Marciulionis tying with Ross for the team lead with four assists, and tying Luke Barrett with a team-high two steals. Mitchell Saxen scored seven, while Luke Barrett chipped in six, with the two each bringing in a team-high seven boards, while Mikey Lewis scored eight to go along with a career-best six rebounds and three assists.
DEFENSIVELY OVERPOWERING A POWER FOUR
Saint Mary's Basketball is not stranger to holding opponents under 40 points. In fact, they've done it five times in the past two seasons. That said, this was Saint Mary's first time holding a power-five/four opponent below 40 since 1942, when the Gaels held Cal, a member of the Pacific Coast Conference (eventually becoming the Pac-12) to 30 points.
JUST AS THE COACHES DREW IT UP
In preparation for the Trojans, the Saint Mary's Coaching Staff preached a few keys to success; win the turnover battle, win the rebounding battle, and limit Trojan points in transition. The Gaels opened up the game with five turnovers in the first 13:30 of the game, but would record just five more for the final 26:30. On the glass, the Gaels doubled up the Trojans 46-23, due in big part to ferocious offensive rebounding by Luke Barrett, Paulius Murauskas and surprise candidate Mikey Lewis, who ripped down a career-high six, including three offensive boards. This led to the Gaels outscoring USC 12-0 in second chance points. Finally, when it came to limiting transition buckets, while the Trojans forced 10 Saint Mary's turnovers, they scored just nine points off of those turnovers, including just three fast break points. All in all, the Gaels won tonight's game because of how well they executed their coach's gameplan.
PERFECT SHOOTING NIGHTS FOR HARDAWAY, WESSELS AND MCKEEVER
Saint Mary's had multiple beneficiaries of a porous USC defense, but three players in particular, Ashton Hardaway, Andrew McKeever and Harry Wessles, went a combined 6-6 from the field. Hardaway hit a corner three in the first half that would give the Gaels their largest lead at four points at the time (23-19) and would proceed to finish the game with two massive slam dunks. Andrew McKeever had easy work, towering over USC's interior defenders late in the game, finishing a pair of layups, with Harry Wessels scoring his lone basket in similar fashion. While only those three players hit at 100% clips, three other players, Mitchell Saxen (75%), Jordan Ross (67%) and Paulius Murauskas (50%) all shot at 50% or better, as the Gaels shot at 51% as a team.
QUOTABLE
"We know that being unbeaten puts a target on our backs, but I think it keeps us more focussed. We know that we can't take our foots off the gas, we have to play locked in basketball for a full forty minutes and we did that tonight!" –Ashton Hardaway on the Gaels keeping their win streak going
"Our guys competed really hard, there was a stretch in the second half and even really going back to late in the first half where our guys just really guarded, and USC couldn't get a basket. I'm just super proud of how our guys came out ready to play. I knew our guy would be excited, but that's probably the best 40 minutes we've put together all season, and we're looking to continue to build off of that." –Associate Head Coach Mickey McConnell on the Gaels performance tonight
UP NEXT
The Gaels will take on the winner of New Mexico and Arizona State tomorrow at 6:30 to decide an Acrisure Classic Champion.
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