St. Mary’s key to success: helping each other

St. Mary’s women’s head coach Paul Thomas has a rule when it comes to the video room: He won’t show his team offensive highlights that don’t include an assist.

He could have shown pretty much the entire regular-season finale, when the Gaels dished out 20 assists on 21 field goals in their 15-point victory over Santa Clara.

“I like where we’ve been in our last three games, and I feel as though we’re trending upward, as far as our play and our expectations,” Thomas said as his team prepped to open the West Coast Conference tournament with a quarterfinal game against Santa Clara on Thursday.

The Gaels (18-11, 13-5) tied with BYU for the second place in the conference, but BYU got the No. 2 seed because it beat first-place Gonzaga. St. Mary’s might be playing better, however, as its won three in a row by an average of 12.7 points per game and including a victory over the Cougars.

It has been quite a turnaround since a 15-point beatdown at Loyola Marymount on Feb. 16. Until then, St. Mary’s only conference losses had come to Gonzaga (two losses by a combined five points), at BYU (by five points) and a buzzerbeater at San Diego.

“Three games ago, I would have said this was our worst season ever, but that LMU game seemed to get their attention,” said Thomas, who is 215-135 in his 11th season in Moraga and has made seven consecutive postseason appearances.

“We need three wins to get into the NCAA Tournament,” Thomas said. “We will not be an at-large bid. There’s no reason to even talk about that. There’s one way to get into the NCAA Tournament this year, and that is to win the West Coast Conference tournament. “Period.” St. Mary’s just might have the team to make that type of run. Led by Stella Beck, the Gaels have four players averaging at least 9.9 points per game and three who are scoring between 6.9 and 8.6 points per game.

St. Mary’s has a rebounding margin of plus-10.7, has taken 134 more foul shots than its opponents and is shooting nearly five percent better than the opposition from the floor (44.1 percent to 39.3 percent).

Along with scoring a teamleading 13.9 points, Beck also paces the squad in field-goal percentage, assists and steals. In some games, she defends the opponent’s best perimeter player, and in other games, she defends the weakest player, so she can get into the passing lanes.

“Stella is from New Zealand, but she’s really our Swiss Army knife,” Thomas said. “We utilize her in every facet of the game. She’s a major, major factor in everything we do . ... She’s even brought ball up court and then gone into the post.” No. 6 Santa Clara (14-15, 9-9): The Broncos had two players register their 1,000th career points this season. Marie Bertholdt passed the mark Jan. 7, and her 1,162 points leave her 62 points away from reaching the school’s top-10 list. Lori Parkinson joined the 1,000point club Dec. 20, with 525 points having been scored at Southern Utah and 724 added at Santa Clara.

The Broncos lost at USF in overtime and at BYU in double overtime. They also have onepoint losses to San Diego and Gonzaga and two-point losses at St. Mary’s and at San Diego. No. 4 USF (17-12, 11-7): Rachel Howard has been among the WCC scoring leaders all season and capped the regular season with a 37-point outburst against Pepperdine. She’s No. 2 on the school’s all-time threepoint list with 184.

Molly Goodenbour posted the second-best record in USF history for a first-year head coach, trailing only Jan Ternyik's 22-8 record in 1980-81. Goodenbour led the Dons to their first winning record in WCC play since 2001-02.

USF has advanced to the WCC tournament final in each of the past two years, winning it last year over BYU for its first WCC title since 1996-97.