Gaels come back, get 10th straight win
This was the kind of game that drew Cullen Neal to Moraga.
The graduate transfer had 14 points and key defensive plays in sparking St. Mary’s to a 70-63 victory over San Diego in a WCC showdown Saturday night at McKeon Pavilion.
St. Mary’s pulled out the win with a 17-0 run that erased an eight-point deficit and put them ahead 58-49 with 7½ minutes to play.
In a hotly contested game for one of the few times since Thanksgiving, the Gaels found a winning mix with an old reliable and the intriguing newcomer. Senior center Jock Landale scored on a hook shot, and after Neal swiped the ball from Isaiah Wright, he made a layup to give the Gaels the breathing room of a 67-61 lead with two minutes to play.
“His numbers have been coming,” head coach Randy Bennett said of Neal, who is averaging fewer than seven points a game but has double digits in two straight. “He’s been playing well. I think he’s settled down. He’s just playing now. He’s not trying to make a play every time the ball hits his hands.”
Neal, who started his career at New Mexico and transferred to St. Mary’s after graduating from Ole Miss, also drew a charge and chased down a loose ball before batting it off a San Diego player to help the Gaels (15-2, 4-0 in WCC) hold the Toreros to two points in the game’s final three minutes.
St. Mary’s has won 10 straight games for the first time since 2011-12, when the Gaels won 12 in a row on their way to the NCAA Tournament. But the Toreros (12-4, 3-1) made it a fight, limiting St. Mary’s to 1-of-11 three-point shooting and a season-low five assists.
Led by Lamont Smith, who coached Neal at New Mexico, San Diego showed why it’s ranked No. 1 in the nation in three-point defense — running the Gaels off the line and making every possession a grind for usually efficient St. Mary’s.
Landale finished with 22 points on 10-of-12 free-throw shooting, and senior point guard Emmett Naar added 24 points on a night when the Gaels needed all of that and the contribution from Neal off the bench.
“We’ve seen it all from him in the other teams he’s played for and in practices,” Naar said of Neal. “He can light it up pretty quickly, and he’s never lacked for confidence. It’s not unexpected, and it’s big for us.”
San Diego led for more than 25 minutes, was up by as many as nine and still led 49-41 with 14 minutes to play. But even on a night when the Gaels couldn’t rely on their threepoint shooting, they managed to rally with the 17-0 spurt.
“You don’t want to do that, but it’s kind of good for you,” Bennett said of the eight-point, second-half deficit. “It creates a greater toughness from your team and a great belief that we’re going to be all right. Our guys have done a good job of keeping their composure, and tonight was a great example of that.”