Gaels fall flat in a first-round upset loss
SPOKANE, Wash. — St. Mary’s perpetual, frustrating quest to make a deep run in the NCAA Tournament will extend at least another year.
This time, the Gaels didn’t even make it to the second round. They brought an experienced team and abundant momentum into Friday night’s firstround game at Spokane Arena — 18 wins in their previous 19 games — only to fall 75-66 to Grand Canyon.
The Antelopes had too much quickness, too much length, too much leaping ability. And away trudged the plodding, plucky school from Moraga, another sparkling regular season leading to no March magic.
Head coach Randy Bennett guided the Gaels into the Sweet 16 in 2010. Since then, they’ve reached the NCAAs seven times without advancing to the second weekend — falling five times in the second round and now twice in the first round.
“It’s hard to advance,” Bennett said after Friday night’s loss. “This one was tough. Last year, we lost to the national champ (Connecticut). Five other teams lost to them, too.
“This year, yeah, we should get that done but we didn’t. Credit (Grand Canyon), they outplayed us.”
The Antelopes (30-4) did exactly that, emphatically. They received 22 points from Tyon Grant-Foster, whose comeback from two heart surgeries counts as one of the most inspiring stories in this year’s tournament, and 17 from Ray Harrison. Grand Canyon earned the first NCAA tourney win in school history.
Mitchell Saxen led the Gaels with 14 points and 11 rebounds, while Aidan Mahaney added 13 points despite shooting poorly from the field (5-for-21).
St. Mary’s, seeded No. 5 in the West Region, finished 26-8 after winning the West Coast Conference regular-season and tournament championships.
The Gaels struggled to cope with Grand Canyon’s quickness (eight steals) and athleticism near the rim (nine blocked shots). St. Mary’s players often couldn’t finish in the lane on offense, prevent Grand Canyon’s penetration on defense or stop fouling.
Grand Canyon attempted 36
free throws, to only 12 for St. Mary’s.
“They have some guards who put pressure on you, but it’s a big discrepancy to overcome,” Bennett said. “Having said that, we still should have overcome it. We didn’t guard well enough and we definitely weren’t good enough offensively for the first 30 minutes.”
St. Mary’s committed 13 turnovers, leading to 17 points — often easy points in transition — for Grand Canyon. Those uncharacteristic miscues left Bennett visibly frustrated on the bench.
And even when the Gaels efficiently ran their deliberate offense, Grand Canyon defenders repeatedly swatted shots in the lane. They took chances, knowing they could recover if needed.
“I don’t think they’re a disciplined defensive team at all, they gamble a lot,” said St. Mary’s swingman Alex Ducas, who scored only three points in his final game in a Gaels uniform. “But they got us tonight. They were physical and really locked
up on shooters.
“They were a heck of a team on defense tonight and it took us too long to figure it out. But I think we hurt ourselves, kind of getting pushed out of our offense. We’ve played physical teams before, but we just didn’t handle it very well tonight.”
One way they could have handled it better: make more outside shots. St. Mary’s shot only 28% from long distance (7-for-25), a problem starting with Mahaney (3-for-13) and stretching to Ducas (1-for-4) and Augustas Marciulionis (1-for-3).
Mahaney missed his first five shots from the field, including one airball. He looked jittery at first, as if he were putting too much pressure on himself. He found some rhythm later in the game but still didn’t connect as reliably as he usually does.
“They’re lengthy, athletic, good defenders, well-coached,” Mahaney said. “I felt like I got good looks on a lot of them.”
Asked how the team-wide struggles from the perimeter impacted the offense, he said, “It
makes a big difference. We’re a good-shooting team, we just didn’t shoot it well tonight. But we still could have scored.”
St. Mary’s trailed by one point at halftime, only to see 12th-seeded Grand Canyon quickly create separation in the second half. Before long, the Gaels found themselves down 17 points. Gaels players, and their fans seated behind the bench, looked stunned and crestfallen.
St. Mary’s trimmed its deficit to five points with 6:37 left but could get no closer.
The crowd was decidedly proGrand Canyon, a byproduct of Antelopes fans traveling well and Gonzaga fans — accustomed to vigorously rooting against St. Mary’s — adopting GCU for the night.
So the Antelopes headed into Sunday’s second-round game against Alabama, while the Gaels returned to the Bay Area to contemplate the sudden end to their season. They started 3-5, then won 23 of their next 25 games to build hope this March would be different.
It wasn’t, leaving Bennett trying to juggle his disappointment over Friday night’s performance with the wider picture.
“I’m proud of these kids for hanging together and accomplishing what they did,” he said. “We had a great season, although I don’t think we played very well tonight. But it doesn’t diminish what they did for the overall year.”