Saint Mary’s Gaels Buck Boise State Broncos In 1st Road Trip
By Mike Rose
Dec 14, 2013; Boise, ID, USA; St. Mary’s Gaels guard Stephen Holt (14) during the first half of action against the Boise State Broncos at Taco Bell Arena. Mandatory Credit: Brian Losness-USA TODAY Sports
The Saint Mary’s Gaels were put to the test in their first road trip at Boise State Saturday afternoon. After a hard-fought battle, the Gaels picked up another solid victory 82-74 and move to an impressive 8-0. Boise State falls to 8-2.
Although Boise State never took the lead beyond two points, they battled the Gaels up to the last seconds of the game. They never could quite hold on to the lead.
In the first half, the Gaels, off a Stephen Holt 3, took to the boards first 3-0 with 19:35 to play. The Gaels slowly built the lead to 16 points (36-20) with 8:18 to go in the first half. In the next six minutes, the Broncos came to life and outscored the Gaels 18-5 cutting the lead to 41-38 with 2:27 in the half. In a roller-coaster ride the Gaels managed to maintain a two-point half time lead 46-44.
The second half was equally wild. With just less than 18 minutes to play the Gaels went on a 14-2 run and recaptured a double-digit lead, up 62-52 with 11:38 to play. The Broncos would not give up. They went on a 9-1 run cutting the Gael lead to 63-61 with 8:38 to play. The Gaels answered with another 7-0 run bringing the lead back to nine up 70-61 with 6:54 to play. Then the Broncos dug in again. As the Gaels stalled at 70 points for just more than five minutes the Broncos answered yet again with an 8-0 run. With 1:46 left to play the Gaels were up 70-69. That was as close as the Broncos would get. Off of solid play and good foul shooting the Gaels would emerge on top 82-74.
Statistically the Gaels went 28-for-58 (48.3 percent) from the floor, 12-for-23 (52.2 percent) from behind the arc and were 14-for-19 (73.7 percent) from the line. Leading the way for the Gaels was Stephen Holt with a season-high 24 points. James Walker put up 14. Beau Levesque had 13. Kerry Carter had 12 and Brad Waldow had 11. Good shooting and depth kept the Gaels strong to the end. The Gael bench had 17. From the paint the Gaels had 20.
The Broncos went 29-for-59 (49.2 percent) from the floor. They were 6-for-14 (42.9 percent) from 3 and hit 10-for-13 (76.9 percent) from the line. Derrick Marks led the team with 22 points. Jeff Elorriaga had 20 and Ryan Watkins hit 14. The Boise state bench had 10. The team had 40 from the paint. This was the defensive weakness of the Gaels tonight. They simply allowed too many points inside.
The Gaels next face American Thursday. Tipoff is at 7 p.m. Pacific at McKeon Pavilion.