San Francisco-Saint Mary's Preview

2/7/2008 4:14 PM

By JEFF MEZYDLO
STATS Writer

After an emotional victory over the longtime class of the West Coast Conference, the last thing Saint Mary's needs is a letdown.

The 25th-ranked Gaels look to avoid that from happening when they host league rival San Francisco on Friday night.

Saint Mary's (19-3, 6-1) has had a few days to come down from its 89-85 overtime home win over Gonzaga on Monday. It was the second time in three games the Gaels beat the perennial WCC power, and it also helped them move into a three-way tie with the Bulldogs and San Diego atop the league standings.

"This one gives you confidence because you know you beat a good team," said Saint Mary's coach Randy Bennett, whose team is one victory away from posting 20 wins for the second time in four seasons.

As the Gaels hope to be the ones to end Gonzaga's recent conference reign, they can't afford to slip against a team like San Francisco (6-16, 2-5), which is toiling near the bottom of the conference and 2-11 on the road.

Saint Mary's, which won 79-57 at San Francisco on Jan. 26, will try to carry over the momentum from Monday's victory as it looks for a fifth straight win over the Dons.

On Monday, freshman Patrick Mills had 23 points and light-scoring guard Todd Golden had a career-high 19 for the Gaels, who overcame a 41.5-percent shooting effort.

Golden, who averages just 7.0 points, went 6-for-6 from 3-point range.

"I was shooting well in warmup," said Golden, who is shooting 71.4 percent (20-for-28) in league play. "Sometimes it's easier to shoot in these tough games because you have so much adrenalin."

Mills, the team's leading scorer at 15.2 per contest, scored the final 10 points of regulation and five in overtime. The 6-foot Australian had 24 on 9-for-16 shooting at San Francisco last month.

The Dons look to rebound from a 72-67 loss at Loyola Marymount on Monday. The defeat came one game after interim coach Eddie Sutton finally became the fifth coach to reach 800 wins with an 85-82 victory at Pepperdine on Saturday.

"We haven't had a great season," Dons senior Danny Cavic said. "But no matter what we get to be part of his 800."

After Bobby Knight stepped down at Texas Tech earlier this week, Sutton became the winningest active men's coach in major college basketball.

The Dons, however, have lost eight of 10 since Sutton arrived in late December to take over after Jessie Evans requested a leave of absence for the remainder of the season. They have lost 11 of their last 13 and will try to snap a four-game road losing streak to Saint Mary's on Friday.

San Francisco shot 37.7 percent and committed 16 turnovers Monday. Dior Lowhorn and Manny Quezada each had 20 points.

Lowhorn, a 6-7 sophomore from Oakland who played for Knight at Texas Tech before transferring to San Francisco, is the league's top scorer at 20.9 points per game. He had 19 points and seven rebounds against Saint Mary's last month.