Gaels Lose First Home Game to Gonzaga.
By Mike Rose
The Gaels suffered a tough at home loss tonight against number five ranked Gonzaga. This breaks a nine game winning streak for the Gaels and sends them into second place in the WCC. The Gaels fall to 21-5 overall and (10-2) in the WCC. The Bulldogs jump to 24-2 overall and are a perfect (11-0) in the WCC
The 1st half started off slow for St. Mary’s. Mitchell young scored first putting the Gaels up 2-0. Kelly Olynyk answered scoring six straight Bulldog points. In the first seven minutes of the game St. Mary’s had put up four points. St Mary’s stayed within five for most of the 1st half.
With 5:54 remaining in the 1st half, Olynyk hit a three giving the bulldogs the largest lead of the half of nine with the score 26-17. Then the Gaels came alive. In the rest of the half, the Gaels outscored the Bulldogs 16-6. Three of these points came off of a Jordan Giusti three with five seconds left giving the Gaels their largest lead of the night 33-30. Gonzaga was fouled and made two which brought St. Mary’s into the half up by one; 33-32.
For the first half the Gaels went 12-25 from the floor (48%) and 7-16 (43.8%) from beyond the arc. Leading the way for the Gaels was Matthew Dellavedova who had 19. He went 6-9 overall with 5-7 being from three point land. St. Mary’s put up just six points from the paint. Their bench had five.
For Gonzaga, Kelly Olynyk had 12 going 5-8. Kevin Pangos had seven shooting 1-3. He went 4-4 from the line. Gonzaga’s bench tied the Gaels with five. From the paint they had 12.
In the second half it was all Bulldogs. They came out scoring seven straight bringing the Bulldogs back to a six point lead 39-33.
The Gaels fell down by 15; 52-37 with 14:44 left in the game. The Gaels were able to have a late second half rally and with 6:49 left in the game they chipped away the Bulldog lead to 56-52. It was too little too late. Gonzaga took charge the rest of the game and defeated the Gaels 77-60.
Statistically for the game the Gaels shot 23-58 (39.7%) from the floor and went 12-35 (34.3%) from three’s. From the paint the Gaels had 16. The bench was limited to 11.
Leading the way tonight for the Gaels was Matthew Dellavedova who finished the night with 22. Next was Stephen Holt with 17.
Gonzaga ended the night 24-48 (50.0%) from the floor and 9-17 (52.9%) from beyond the arc. They had 25 points from the paint and their bench had 10. Gonzaga had three players in double digits. Bell Jr. had 20, Pangos had 18, and Olynyk had 17. The Bulldogs outrebounded the Gaels 37-25. From free throws the Bulldogs went to the line 24 times verses the Gaels 5. The Bulldogs hit 20-24, the Gaels went 2-5.
The Gaels head back on the road to face Loyola Sat afternoon at 4pm.