Gaels manage to avoid letdown
Instead of in a large, packed arena, it happened in cozy, less-than-half-filled McKeon Pavilion. Instead of a game played in 20-minute halves, it was played in 10-minute quarters.
Yes, St. Mary’s 89-45 romp over Southeastern Louisiana on Tuesday night was a far cry from what the Gaels wanted — and probably expected — last weekend: an at-large berth in the NCAA Tournament.
No matter how disappointed the Gaels were about not receiving one of those 36 at-large NCAA bids, they didn’t let it affect their play Tuesday.
“I was a little worried about our guys,” St. Mary’s head coach Randy Bennett said. “That was a jolt the other day, and I don’t know how long you need to get over that.”
Senior center Jock Landale spoke to his teammates before the game. “I just said, ‘Look, we’ve got to prove these guys wrong. If we don’t go the distance in the NIT, they’re going to keep thinking that St. Mary’s doesn’t deserve to be in the NCAA Tournament.’ …
“I think that woke everyone up and I think that from then on, it was easy for us.”
It certainly was easy for Landale against the undersized and overmatched Lions (22-12).
He went 11-for-15 from the floor and scored 26 points. That left the 6-foot-11 Australian with 731 points and 287 field goals this season. He moved past Omar Samhan (724, 282 in 2009-10) atop the Gaels’ record book in each category.
Landale said he and Samhan, a big man with a good sense of humor, are pretty
close.
Said Landale: “Omar called me and said, ‘Don’t score 20 points.’ ” Of course, that’s what Landale needed to break Samhan’s record.
St. Mary’s (29-5) equaled the school mark for victories, reached in each of the past two seasons.
The Gaels got 19 points from sophomore guard Jordan Ford (8-for-10 from the field) and 17 from senior forward Calvin Hermanson, who buried his fifth threepointer of the night just before the halftime buzzer to make it 43-19 at the break. He scored all of his points in the first half.
The first points of the second half also energized the small but lively group of fans at McKeon. After a steal by Emmett Naar, Ford put on a dribbling exhibition as he raced downcourt and converted a layup.
This is the Gaels’ sixth NIT appearance in the past 10 seasons, and their first as a No. 1 seed. As a top seed, they will be at home for any game before the semifinals at Madison Square Garden on March 27.
St. Mary’s faces the winner of Wednesday night’s Boise State-Washington game, day and time to be determined.
Briefly: Landale (1,620) passed Diamon Simpson (1,603) for sixth on the school’s career points list. David Vann is fifth at 1,738. Matthew Dellavedova is the leader at 1,933. … St. Mary’s forward Tanner Krebs had a game-high 10 rebounds.