Landale plays big in rout of Harvard
FULLERTON, Orange County — Harvard head coach Tommy Amaker called Jock Landale a “security blanket” for St. Mary’s.
The 6-foot-11 senior provided plenty of reassurance for the 21stranked Gaels on Thursday afternoon, putting up a game-high 26 points in an 89-71 victory over the Crimson that advanced St. Mary’s into the semifinals of the Wooden Legacy tournament.
Landale shot 7-for-9 from the floor and 12for-13 from the foul line to make up for an unusual day during which the Gaels (5-0) committed 13 turnovers and connected on just 7 of 20 shots from three-point range.
“He’s one of the better post players in the country,” Amaker said. “He’s very savvy. I think he’s crafty in his ability to find cutters and uses angles and shot fakes very well. He’s the whole package for a low-post guy. …
“There are not a lot of holes in their team, and I think he’s a security blanket. You throw it in there and good things happen.”
St. Mary’s will play Washington State, which beat St. Joseph’s 75-71, at 10:30 a.m. Friday after not trailing and leading by as many as 28 points against Harvard (2-3) in the quarterfinals.
Landale’s 26 points tied for the second most of his career and were seven short of his best outing against Nevada last season. He also had seven rebounds, pushing St. Mary’s record to 34-3 when he has at least that many.
“We’re not very smart if we’re not trying to play through Jock in the post,” St. Mary’s head coach Randy Bennett said. “We usually have a mismatch there.”
It appears as though St. Mary’s has a mismatch pretty much everywhere, winning its fifth straight game by at least 17 points. The Gaels outrebounded the Crimson 39-21, beat them by 21 points in bench scoring and connected on 30 of 32 freethrow attempts.
Point guard Emmett Naar flirted with a triple-double, finishing with 11 points, nine rebounds and nine assists. Cullen Neal had 15 points, and Jordan Ford added 12 points and nine rebounds as St. Mary’s used a jolting start to stave off Harvard’s second-half run.
After scoring only 20 first-half points — three more than an all-time tournament low — the Crimson had 51 secondhalf points, three fewer than an all-time tournament high. Harvard trimmed St. Mary’s lead to 69-60 with 6:23 remaining, but the Gaels quickly regained control.
“I thought we played probably our best half of the year and then played probably about our worst five minutes to start the second half,” Bennett said. “They could have laid down easy, but they didn’t. They came back in the second half and caused us to turn over the ball. …
“We have to learn from this. Fortunately, we can learn through a win.”