Feb. 5, 2011

Box Score

MORAGA, Calif. - For most of the season, Saint Mary's has been among the nation's leaders in shooting, knocking down better than 50 percent from the field on the year. Included in that total was a better than 60 percent effort in the first meeting against LMU at Gersten Pavilion in January.

It was a different story in Moraga, as the Lions gave the Gaels all they could handle by shooting better than 52 percent from the floor and posting a fierce second half rally that erased near all of a 15-point second half deficit.

However, the Lions (9-15, 1-8) couldn't get over the hump against the West Coast Conference leaders, falling to the Gaels (20-4, 8-1) down the stretch, 79-70, at McKeon Pavilion Saturday night.

"Really at the end, we didn't play that bad, we just didn't rebound that well. All in all I'm not totally disappointed with tonight," said Head Coach Max Good. "We played them much better tonight at their place than we did at home, so I hope that is a sign of making strides. They are a tough team to handle at their place. With that said, I am disappointed with the loss, I thought we could beat them."

The Lions finished the game hitting 28-for-53 from the field (52.8 percent), hitting on 15-for-23 in the second half (65.2 percent) to erase all but four points of a 15-point deficit in the second half. Meanwhile, the Gaels hit the same number of field goals on 57 attempts (49.1 percent), but hit five more three-pointers than the Lions, going 9-for-17 from long range.

Ashley Hamilton led the Lions with 16 points while freshman Anthony Ireland had 15 points. Vernon Teel added 10 points while Edgar Garibay went for nine points and six rebounds.

The guard duo of Matthew Dellavedova and Mickey McConnell each played a full 40 minutes for the second straight game and led the Gaels with 23 and 16 points, respectively. McConnell added 10 assists and seven rebounds.

The Lions, ranked first in most rebounding categories in the WCC and second in rebound margin, had their lowest rebound total of the season with just 21 while being outrebounded by 15.

Hamilton and Ireland led the Lions comeback in the second half, scoring 12 and 11 each, respectively, in the final 20 minutes.

"Our game plan tonight was to really pound the ball to Ashley," said Good. "Early in the game he missed some shots and got frustrated, but we told him to keep working and we did a great job of keeping to the game play. Edgar also came in and gave is some good minutes and I thought Anthony played really well."

With 10:42 to play, Delladova hit a three-pointer to give the Gaels a 62-47 lead. The lead would drop to eight, 66-58, on a Teel lay-up with 7:05 to play. However, SMC would get the lead back to 12, 70-58, less than a minute later.

LMU would then make one last push. They would go on an 8-0 run to cut the lead to 70-66 to play. Ireland started the run with a three-pointer and Godwin Okonji cut the lead to seven on a lay-in. Ireland would then cut the lead to four an a three-point play with 4:11 to play.

On the next trip down the floor McConnell delivered a dagger with a three-pointer to push the lead back to seven.

"He (McConnell) makes plays, baskets or passes.," said Good. "Hats off to him. His basketball IQ is very high, he plays with poise and I hope our younger players can learn from that."

The teams would trade field goals, the last by LMU coming from Hamilton with 1:34 to play to cut the lead to 75-70. The Gaels would score the final four points of the game.

The Lions return to Gersten Pavilion for the final homestand of the season, starting with Gonzaga on Thursday, Feb. 10 at 8 p.m. The game will be on ESPN2 and on KXLU 88.9 FM.