St. Mary’s men: Gaels rally to knock off Pacific on the road.
STOCKTON — After pulling out a thrilling three-point decision at Gonzaga on Thursday night, St. Mary’s had to endure another nail-biter at the Spanos Center on Saturday evening.
Pacific gave the Gaels all they could handle, but handle the situation they did. It was another threepoint victory for St. Mary’s, 72-69.
“I’m exhausted,” St. Mary’s head coach Randy Bennett said a few minutes after the victory, “but I’m just pumped we were able to find a way to get that done.”
With 41 seconds left, Emmett Naar broke a 68-68 tie with a foul shot and then hit another, and the Gaels (19-2, 8-0 WCC) were able to maintain the lead the rest of the way.
Naar knocked down two more free-throw tries with 26.1 ticks left for the game’s final points. The senior guard from Australia has connected on 85 percent from the line in his St. Mary’s career.
Naar said making foul shots in the final minute shouldn’t be any harder than in the first 39.
“No matter what the time is or anything,” Naar said, “it’s the same distance, the same shot. So, I just try to do my same routine, have the same thoughts in my head and just let it fly.”
After Naar’s foul shots with 26.1 seconds left, the Tigers had two more possessions. First, St. Mary’s Elijah Thomas’ defense contributed to Lafayette Dorsey (teamhigh 18 points) missing a baseline jumper. Jock Landale grabbed the rebound and was fouled with less than three seconds left.
Landale poured in a game-high 32 points, but he missed both freethrow tries. The Tigers (10-11, 5-3) then launched a desperation heave that was not close, and the Gaels had extended their winning streak to 14 games, one off the school record set in 2008-09.
On Jan. 4, the Gaels throttled Pacific 74-56 in
Moraga, but Saturday’s game was decidedly different. Neither team led by more than seven points.
Prevailing in Spokane, Wash., on Thursday night rates as the Gaels’ signature win this season, but Saturday’s victory brought an almost equal amount of satisfaction.
“Obviously, it’s a different feel than the Gonzaga game because there’s so much talk about Gonzaga and that,” Naar said. “But, getting out of here with a win is — I don’t want to say it’s just as big — but it’s close.”
Briefly: Naar scored all 12 of his points in the second half. Senior forward Calvin Hermanson had all 11 of his points after the intermission. … Landale finished with seven rebounds. He had doubledoubles in 11 of the previous 12 games . ... St. Mary’s has beaten Pacific 11 consecutive times. Each of the Gaels’ past five wins in Stockton have been come by eight points or fewer. … Landale moved into 12th place on the school’s career scoring list with 1,368 points. He passed Frank “Apples” Kudelka, who had 1,343. Next on the list is Stephen Holt with 1,370. Matthew Dellavedova is the leader with 1,933.