MORAGA – Bruising forward Paulius Murauskas took charge of Saint Mary’s scoring Thursday night. The University of San Francisco’s shooters responded by bruising the rim.
What ensued was a 71-51 blowout for the Gaels in a matchup of the West Coast Conference’s leading teams.
Saint Mary’s (17-3, 7-0) remained perfect in conference action. USF fell to 16-6, 6-3.
Murauskas poured in 24 points, the second-highest output this season from the Arizona transfer. Mitchell Saxen added 14 points and Jordan Ross 12.
Saint Mary’s entered with the nation’s seventh-best scoring defense, and while it didn’t necessarily deprive USF of open shots, the Dons couldn’t knock down better than 27.5% of their field-goal attempts (14-of-51).
The Gaels are not even halftway through conference play, and the remaining slate is loaded with challengers. Home-and-away series await with Washington State, Gonzaga, Santa Clara, and Oregon State, not to mention a Feb. 6 rematch at USF.
Next up are road games Saturday at Washington State and Wednesday at Santa Clara, then the Gaels return to host Gonzaga on Saturday night, Feb. 1 in an ESPN-televised game.
Murauskas sparked the Gaels in the first half, accounting for 12 of their first 30 points. He drew a standing ovation from the home crowd with a pump-fake on the perimeter en route to an uncontested dunk, putting the Gaels up 30-25 with 4:38 until halftime.
With 7 minutes remaining, each team had 44 field-goal attempts, but the Gaels made 27 (61.4%) and the Dons just 12 (27.3%) to account for what had become a 60-37 blowout.
In the end, Saint Mary’s scored 52 of its 71 points in the paints, while USF managed just 12 in there.
The Gaels’ defense clamped down late in the first half, holding USF without a field goal for seven minutes until Carlton Linguard made his fourth 3-pointer of the half, cutting St. Mary’s lead to 36-28 at the break. Linguard and Marcus Williams each finished with 14 points.
The Gaels took a 36-28 lead into halftime, then scored the first eight points after the greak. Luke Barrett’s layup reflected this game’s offensive disparity as the Gaels stretched their lead to 44-28.
Augustas Marciulionis’ uncontested layup on a head-fake drive put Saint Mary’s up 50-35, and if that 15-point deficit didn’t discourage USF enough, Mitchell Saxen provided a block on USF’s ensuing possession, with 11 ½ minutes still to go.
As Murauskas headed to the bench, Harry Wessels replaced him and soon supplied a baseline dunk for a 67-41 cushion with 4 minutes remaining.
It was an appropriate exclamation mark on the rout considering Wessels is Australian, and the Gaels were celebrating Australian Heritage Night. The evening opened with that country’s national anthem, an ode to their current corps of Aussies who’ve followed a pipeline of stars such as past Gaels Patty Mills, Matthew Dellavedova and Jock Landale, all of whom have their numbers retired in St. Mary’s rafters.