Saint Mary's-Santa Clara Preview

2/10/2008 3:43 PM

By MIKE LIPKA
STATS Writer

Riding another winning streak, Saint Mary's is back atop the West Coast Conference with its first 20-win season in three years.

But the 25th-ranked Gaels haven't played on the road since their last loss, and will be going for just their third road win of the season on Monday when they face a Santa Clara team looking to avenge its worst loss in more than three years.

Saint Mary's (20-3, 7-1) has won three straight, a streak that includes last Monday's 89-85 overtime victory over Gonzaga that pulled the Gaels back into a first-place tie with the Bulldogs in the WCC.

The Gaels followed that by beating San Francisco 76-51 on Friday, shooting 51.9 percent and totaling a season-best 15 steals.

"The most important thing is just to keep winning," Gaels reserve Yusef Smith said. "We can't have any letdowns. We're going to get everybody's best shot night in and night out."

Smith led Saint Mary's with a career-best 15 points in just 16 minutes off the bench against San Francisco, also adding seven rebounds. Tron Smith and Omar Samhan added 12 points, while Patrick Mills and Diamon Simpson each had 10.

While Mills leads the team with 15.0 points per game, Samhan and Simpson each average 12.3.

"We have three awesome scorers in Diamon, Omar and Patty," Yusef Smith said. "When they're not on one night, other guys pick up the slack."

Thanks in part to that depth, Saint Mary's is off to its best start in WCC play since the 1958-59 season, when it began 11-0 in what was then the West Coast Athletic Conference.

The Gaels will remain in the Top 25 for three straight weeks for the first time since the 1988-89 season, thanks to only their fourth 20-win season since the 1940s. Most recently, they went 25-9 and reached the NCAA tournament in 2004-05.

"It's a tribute to these kids. They don't let up," Saint Mary's coach Randy Bennett said. "They keep things in perspective. They do what you preach as a coach."

But each of the Gaels' last three wins came at home, where they are 14-0 this season. They are just 2-3 on the road, including a 63-55 loss at San Diego in their most recent trip.

This is the first of three straight road games for Saint Mary's, which visits Loyola Marymount on Saturday and Pepperdine next Monday.

The Gaels lead the WCC offensively, averaging 78.1 points, but they've been held under 80 in all five road games, averaging 65.8.

Saint Mary's lost all three games against Santa Clara last season, but posted a 76-45 blowout of the Broncos (12-10, 4-3) on Jan. 12 in the only meeting this season. It was Santa Clara's largest margin of defeat since a 93-59 loss at New Mexico early in the 2004-05 season.

The January game was the first matchup of Mills and Santa Clara freshman Ben Dowdell, who played together on the Australian Under-19 team at the 2007 world championships.

The Broncos have won four of six since that game, losing only to a pair of opponents with one WCC defeat apiece. They lost 53-51 at San Diego on Jan. 26, then fell 87-82 in overtime to Gonzaga on Feb. 2.

Santa Clara has been idle since beating Portland 52-50 last Monday, when 6-foot-10 center John Bryant had 15 points, 13 rebounds and five blocked shots. Bryant is second in the WCC with 17.6 points per game.

But the Broncos have won consecutive games just once since November, and have lost seven straight against ranked teams since beating then-No. 4 North Carolina in November of what ended up being the Tar Heels' 2004-05 national championship season.