Fitts, Ford help Gaels cruise in win over Toreros

“We never think we’re going to wipe a team out. You just got to bring it for 40 minutes.”

Jordan Ford, Gaels guard

It was a good week for St. Mary’s: a 20-point win over Santa Clara followed by another convincing win Saturday night, a 76-59 triumph over San Diego.

A little over five minutes into the game, the crowd at McKeon Pavilion was rocking as the Gaels led by 14.

Things got tougher after that, but St. Mary’s eventually rolled to its 10th straight win in the series with San Diego and their 20th in the past 22 games. San Diego hasn’t won in Moraga since 2007.

“We never think we’re going to wipe a team out,” Gaels guard Jordan Ford said. “You just got to bring it for 40 minutes.”

Ford, who entered the game as the leading scorer in the WCC with a 22.3-point average, scored 21, including 16 in the first half.

Malik Fitts scored 24 points to lead the Gaels (13-7, 3-1 WCC), connecting on all eight of his foul shots. He also played strong defense on Isaiah Pineiro, the Toreros’ leading scorer and one of the better players in the conference.

Pineiro paced San Diego (13-7, 2-3) with 16 points and Isaiah Wright had 12. The Toreros’ second-leading scorer, Olin Carter III, was out with an injury.

Fitts punctuated the win with an emphatic dunk with four minutes left and the Gaels leading 65-45.

“From the beginning we wanted to come out with great intensity,” Fitts said.

The Toreros trimmed their deficit to 47-39 with 12½ minutes left, but the Gaels stayed in control the rest of the way.

“It’s a game of runs,” Fitts said. “We were able to stay composed for 40 minutes.”

San Diego had won three in a row, but the Gaels harassed the San Diego shooters into a 3for-16 performance from 3point range. St. Mary’s also enjoyed a 40-29 advantage on the boards.

Those elements pleased head coach Randy Bennett, who was less enthusiastic about the offense on both of this week’s wins.

“We’re so choppy offensively,” he said. “We’re taking bad shots; we’ve got to get better there.”

While Ford was strong mainly in the first half, he said, “Fitts was good in both halves. We needed him to have a good night, and he did.”

Jordan Hunter added 10 points, and Tanner Krebs had eight points and 13 rebounds. Backup center Matthias Tass, a 6-10 freshman from Estonia, chipped in with nine points and seven rebounds.

“He’s been coming on,” Bennett said of Tass. “He’s figuring it out defensively for us and rebounding. He’s a much better player than he was in November, and I think it has a lot to do with us being a better team.”

It took Ford just 48 seconds to score his first basket of the game and a little over seven minutes to get into double figures. He hit 3-of-5 3-pointers on his way to 16 points in the first half, after which the Gaels led 38-26.