Saint Mary’s flexes its muscles in the Acrisure Invitational against USC

November 30, 2024

A big win at the Acrisure Invitational on Thursday may not fully say which teams are the powerhouses of West Coast basketball and which are not. But Saint Mary’s 71-36 win over USC certainly says something about where these two teams stand as the men’s basketball season begins.

“I feel like we’re getting better. We have a lot of new key players,” Saint Mary’s head coach Randy Bennett said after his team improved to 7-0.

Given that Saint Mary’s has been a strong West Coast Conference team for years, it is surprising that Thursday night’s game at Acrisure Arena marked the first time in 11 tries that Saint Mary’s has defeated USC.

While Saint Mary’s showed its potential to be an NCAA Tournament team again and potentially challenge Gonzaga for the WCC title, Thursday’s game also showed that USC remains in rebuilding mode. A month after beating Gonzaga in an exhibition game at Acrisure Arena, the Trojans struggled in all aspects of the game, scoring just 15 points in the second half and shooting just 26 percent from the field, including missing all 12 of their 3-pointers -Try.

“Obviously they were gone,” Bennett said of the Trojans. “They didn’t get a 3. But we had something to do with it.”

USC took a 19-18 lead with 7:25 left in the first half, but then the Trojans’ shooting went ice cold. USC scored just two more points in the half and didn’t score at all in the final 4:59 of the half. At this point, Saint Mary’s had built a 32-21 halftime lead.

That lead expanded to 44-25 five minutes into the second half, with much of Saint Mary’s damage coming from guard Jordan Ross. Ross scored the first eight points of the half for the Gaels, reaching 15 points to lead Saint Mary’s in scoring.

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“This thing comes at just the right time,” said Ross, a second-year returner for the Gaels. “We’re getting better every game, every game. This is usually what you want. You don’t want to play your best basketball game in November or December. We’re getting better as the games go on.” “

The Gales were so dominant in the second half that their total of 39 points in the 20 minutes was more than USC’s 36 points in the entire game.

USC coach Eric Musselman, who did not speak after the game, said at the meeting with Gonzaga that he would start the year looking for the right combination of players with 13 new players on the USC roster. Even though the loss only fell to 5-2 for USC, it was clear that Musselman and the Trojans are still looking for consistency.

That’s not a problem for Saint Mary’s, as Bennett says his team has gained depth for the 2024-25 season.

“Paulius (Murauskas) is new, he is a key player for us. Ashton (Hardaway) has become a key player for us. “He’s developing some depth for us,” Bennett said. “And Mikey Lewis is a freshman who is one of our top scorers. As they grow and understand it, we have improved.”

Bennett also praised the tournament, Acrisure Arena and the desert, perhaps only half-joking that it seemed like a nice, livable place to retire.

After Ross, two Gaels, Murauskas and Augusta Marciulionis, each scored 11 points. Saint Mary’s shot 50.8 percent from the field and outrebounded the Trojans 46-23. USC only had one player score in double figures on the night, forward Josh Cohan with 12.

“We’ve gotten better defensively. We’re good together. That’s why we have to continue to play to our strengths,” said Bennett.

But Bennett wasn’t ready to say his team was ready for conference play.

“I know it sounds crazy after a game like this, but we still have a lot of room for improvement,” he said. “I think in the last week and a half we’ve made some progress defensively. One of our weaknesses was defending the three, so we did that tonight.”

The win advances the Gaels to Friday’s championship game at 6:30 p.m. against the Arizona State Sun Devils, who survived a wild game to beat the New Mexico Lobos 85-82 in the final game of the evening at Acrisure Arena.

85 Arizona St., 82 New Mexico

After building a lead of as many as 13 points in the first half, Arizona fell behind as New Mexico went on a 21-1 run, including 16-1 to close the first half and the first five points of the second half. The game remained close until the end, with New Mexico leading by as many as nine points.

Trailing 75-74, Arizona State hit consecutive 3-pointers by Basheer Jihad and BJ Freeman to take a five-point lead with less than a minute to play. A 3-pointer from Mustapha Amzil brought New Mexico back within one point, and Arizona State had to survive a 3-point attempt in the middle of the field to secure the game.

Jihad led Arizona State with 20 points while Joson Sason added 19 for the Sun Devils, who improved to 6-1. New Mexico (5-2) led with 30 points from Donovan Dent and 28 points from Amzil, including 17 in the first half.

New Mexico will face USC in the third-place game of the invitational tournament on Friday at 9 p.m.

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