A much better start than finish for Gaels
SALT LAKE CITY — Sometimes the game of basketball just comes down to who can get to the rim more often. Arizona did Saturday night, and the second-seeded Wildcats proved too much for St. Mary’s to handle, pushing past the No. 7 seed 69-60 to advance to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament.
Jock Landale led the Gaels (29-5) with 19 points and 11 rebounds, but St. Mary’s was only 5-for-21 from three-point range in the second-round game and couldn’t answer Arizona’s drives and inside baskets in the second half. Arizona (32-4) will play Xavier in San Jose on Thursday.
Landale was finishing at the rim early, as the center scored 10 points in the first 8:02 and helped launch the Gaels to a 10-point lead. But Arizona sent more and more bigs at him, and held him to 3-of-9 shooting after his 5-for-5 start.
“They just started fronting me on the post a lot more, making it tough for me to catch,” Landale said. “I was catching it out a lot further, which is my fault, I need to do a better job of getting the deep catch.”
Still, Landale thought the Gaels continued to move the ball well offensively.
What Arizona did was “nothing out of the ordinary. We’re used to that stuff,” he said. “We just didn’t hit shots that we usually do.”
Arizona guard Alonzo Trier scored all 14 of his points in the second half, and nine came in an 11-2 run that put the Wildcats up 55-48 with six minutes left. After an 0-for-4 first half, Trier scored on a deep three, an off-balance bank shot and two free throws on a personal 7-0 run.
“I almost feel like the difference in the game was his offensive outburst,” Arizona coach Sean Miller said. “He regained his confidence. And when he’s confident offensively our team is a lot better.”
Later, St. Mary’s guard Tanner Krebs hit a three from the corner to make it a three-point game but 7-foot Lauri Markkanen (16 points) responded with a three to make it 61-55 with 3:29 left.
The Gaels wouldn’t get closer than five the rest of the way.
“I couldn’t be more proud of our team,” St. Mary’s coach Randy Bennett said. “Joe (Rahon) and Dane (Pineau), our seniors, they’re awesome. Never had better leadership on a team. Never had a group of guys, one through 15, as squared away, have as good of attitudes as this group.”
In the end, Arizona was better. The seeds didn’t lie. And the Wildcats drove and got to the free-throw line, making 19-of-23 compared to St. Mary’s 5-of-8.
“We played well tonight,” Bennett said. “Lost to a really good team, good program, really well coached and they just got us down the stretch. It was a good college basketball game.”
The Wildcats didn’t pull ahead for the first time until there were 20 seconds gone in the second half and Dusan Ristic scored inside to make it 31-30.
Calvin Hermanson, who was in foul trouble in the first half, scored 12 of his 14 points after the break for St. Mary’s. He was 2-of-9 from threepoint range.
“They close out hard,” Bennett said of Arizona’s defense. “They’ll give you threes, but they’re flying at you when you shoot them and they’re pretty athletic so they can get a big hand up there. …
“We had some open ones we needed to make. Sometimes the game comes down to it. … And a big part of our game is shooting the ball from three and we didn’t shoot it well enough.
The Gaels jumped to a 22-12 lead as the Wildcats had no answer for Landale. He hit his first five shots in a variety of ways, on a couple of offensive rebounds, once showing his footwork inside, dunking a lob and burying a 14-footer. Landale also had seven rebounds to go with his 12 first-half points.
St. Mary’s did a nice job defensively early, holding Arizona without a field goal for 7:07, until Parker Jackson-Cartwright hit a three-pointer with 3:04 left in the half to pull the Wildcats to 26-21. Arizona, thanks to nine offensive rebounds and eight free throws, cut its deficit to 30-29 at halftime.