Selection Sunday again key for Gaels
LAS VEGAS — Jordan Ford has the hair, the number and even the shoes.
But St. Mary’s probably would have needed the sophomore guard to morph into Stephen Curry to have beaten BYU on Monday night.
Ford had a career-high 27 points on four three-pointers, which matched his career best, but it still wasn’t close to enough to knock off a BYU team that consistently attacked the rim in an 85-72 WCC tournament semifinal victory at Orleans Arena.
At No. 20 in the Associated Press poll and No. 36 in the RPI, St. Mary’s (28-5) has probably done enough to earn a berth in the NCAA Tournament, but the Gaels can do nothing but sit and wait for Selection Sunday as the Cougars (24-9) advanced to play Gonzaga in Tuesday’s championship.
Two seasons ago, the Gaels were 27-5 after losing to Gonzaga in the tournament title game and did not receive an NCAA bid.
BYU got 33 points and six rebounds from Yoeli Childs, 25 points from Elijah Bryant, 11 points and seven assists from TJ Haws and 10 points and six rebounds from Dalton Nixon on
a night when its offense was pure precision.
The Cougars shot 61.1 percent from the floor and 45.5 percent from three-point range, and they had 20 assists to six turnovers.
“I think it’s huge to make the right plays, and that’s what we did tonight,” said Childs, who was 13-for-18 from the floor. “The ball was popping around. Nobody was caring about, ‘What am I doing offensively? Am I getting enough points?’ Nobody cared about that. The most important thing was getting the win.
“When we have that mentality, we’re pretty tough to guard.”
Those are the kinds of things that usually characterize St. Mary’s offense, but the Gaels appeared tentative. Even after saying he knew he needed to be more assertive, Jock Landale had 23 points and only four rebounds — not taking his first shot until midway through the first half and finishing with just 13 field-goal attempts.
Ford was 4-for-8 from threepoint range, but St. Mary’s players who weren’t wearing No. 30 combined to go 4-for-18 from distance. Playing in foul trouble for much of the night, Calvin Hermanson scored 12 points on 4-of-11 shooting.
St. Mary’s usually beautiful offense of ball and player movement created only 11 assists to 10 turnovers, and the Cougars converted the gaffes into 18 points. In an absolute rarity for the Gaels, they got beaten 46-32 in paint points as BYU had an obvious game plan to go inside.
There were 13 lead changes and seven ties in the first half, but BYU started to take control when Landale went to the bench with three personal fouls. St. Mary’s head coach Randy Bennett brought the WCC Player of the Year back into the game with two fouls and 3:27 remaining in the first half, and 98 seconds later, Landale picked up No. 3.
With Landale on the bench, the Cougars closed the half on 8-2 run to go into the break with a 41-37 lead, and the momentum carried after halftime. Bryant opened the second half with a layup, and Childs followed with a dunk that gave BYU a 45-37 advantage, its largest of the game to that point.
St. Mary’s whittled the deficit to 55-54 on an Evan Fitzner layup at the 11:14 mark, but BYU responded with a 12-0 run, a stretch during which both Hermanson and Landale picked up their fourth fouls. Each fouled out as BYU celebrated its victory.
“We were not very good defensively. I don’t know why,” Bennett said. “We’ve got to have better effort. We weren’t good enough there. We got out-hustled. …
“When we play good teams at this stage of the season, you can’t give up easy baskets. That’s a lot to overcome. If we would have done a better job there, it would have been a different ballgame.”