St. Mary’s Gaels Dominated Loyola Marymount Lions In Big Win
By Mike Rose
After a two game on the road-losing streak, the St. Mary’s Gaels faced the Loyola Marymount Lions tonight coming out on fire. The Gaels started the night on a 14-0 run with one of their most impressive starts of the season. If losing two tough road games could be incentive to re-group and come out ready to play on the road, tonight would be the example. The Gaels went on to a decisive but hard fought victory winning 77-58.
With 5 minutes to play in the first half, Anthony Ireland of the Lions hit a two-point floater, which put him ahead of Bo Kimble to take the 4th place all-time leading scorer position in Lion’s history.
In the next two minutes the Lions were able to cut into the Gael lead bringing the score to 35-25 with 3:03 to play. Off what would become an 11-0 run of their own, the Lions cut the Gael lead to 6 with under a minute in the half. Beau Levesque broke the streak and hit a 2-pointer bringing the Gael lead back to 8. Anthony Ireland answered with just 2 seconds left and the Lions went to the lock room down just 6; 37-31.
The Lions switched-up their defense adding a 2-2-1 trap causing several key turn overs for the Gaels. The Gaels needed to adapt better to the pressure.
In yet another wild half, the Gaels went 14-24 (58.3 percent) from the floor and were 5-9 (58.6 percent) from behind the arc. Three players hit double-digits. Kerry Carter had 14. Both Levesque and Stephen Holt had 11.
For the Lions, they went 14-28 (50.0 percent) from the floor and were 1-2 (25.0 percent) from threes.
In the second half, both teams came on strong. By the first media time-out, the Gaels were able to maintain the lead and were up 47-39 with 15:25 to play. With 14:00 left in the game, the Gaels built back up their lead to 11; 50-39. The Gaels maintained their solid play and were up 12 with 11:54 to play.
Loyal simply seemed to run out of gas and were never able to get back into the game. St. Mary’s continued solid play, and went on an 8-0 run bringing the lead to 64-45 with 7:45 left. Despite the effort, the Lions cold not out match the solid offensive play of the Gaels. By the final media time out, the Gaels were up 73-51.
After a hard fought first half, The Gaels pick up an impressive victory and move to 7-4 in the conference. Loyola falls to 3-9 in conference play.
For the night the Gaels finished, 31-53 (58.5 percent) from the floor. They were 6-13 (46.2 percent) from threes. Kerry Carter led the way tonight with 20. Both Levesque and Holt had 17. Brad Waldow finished with12.
For the Lions, they went 25-58 (43.1 percent) from the floor. They were just 2-10 (20.0 percent) from three point land. Leading the way was Evan Payne with 17. Ireland finished with13. Alex Osborne had 10.
The Gaels stay on the road facing Pepperdine Saturday night. Tip-off starts at 7:00pm. Pacific