Saint Mary’s shot at the Sweet 16 went amiss Sunday, 15 years after reaching that NCAA Tournament stage for the only time in program history.
No. 2-seed Alabama ended the cold-shooting Gaels’ season in 80-66, second-round fashion at Cleveland’s Rocket Arena.
No. 7-seed Saint Mary’s (29-6) struggled offensively from the outset, and a 42-29 halftime deficit forced the Gaels to try repeating Friday’s first-round comeback, in which they trailed by 12 before outlasting Vanderbilt 59-56.
A year after reaching its first Final Four, Alabama (27-8) advanced to Thursday’s East Region semifinals in Newark, N.J. against No. 6 seed BYU, which knocked off No. 3 Wisconsin 91-89 Saturday.
Saint Mary’s exited with a second-round defeat for the third time in four years, having been upset in last year’s first round as a No. 5 seed. The Gaels have lost five straight appearances in the second round since their 2010 run to the Sweet 16.
Saint Mary’s made a season-low 34.3% of their field-goal attempts, and just 25% in the first half en route to a 13-point deficit at the break. The Gaels missed their first nine 3-point attempts — a habit that plagued their final four games — and exited 3-of-14 from beyond the arc.
When Augustas Marciulionis produced Saint Mary’s first 3-pointer, the deficit was 64-53 with 7 ½ minutes remaining. Marciulionis finished with nine points and was 3-of-11 from the floor, symbolic of the Gaels’ overall shooting struggles.
Saint Mary’s repeatedly pulled within eight points in the second half, but Alabama answered every time. Six Alabama players scored in double figures and the Crimson Tide made 51.8% of its field-goal attempts while hitting 7-of-17 3-point tries.
Mitchell Saxen led Saint Mary’s with 15 points in his program-record 156th and final game. Fellow big man Harry Wessels had 12 points, while the Gaels’ other points came from Jordan Ross (eight; 4-of-15 shooting), Paulius Murauskas (seven; 2-of-7), Lewis (seven; 3-of-8) and Luke Barrett (six; 2-of-7).
Mikey Lewis’ corner 3-pointer trimmed Alabama’s lead to 76-66 with 86 seconds remaining, but it was the Gaels’ final 3 of the night.
The Gaels were 9-of-36 on field-goal attempts and 0-of-6 from 3-point range, no way to start against the nation’s top-scoring team. Almost all of their other 21 first-half misses came in the paint.
Alabama, which entered at an NCAA-best 91.1 points per game, converted over 55% of its first-half field-goal attempts, with Chris Youngblood scoring 13 points in the first half while Sears had just four points. Youngblood finished with 13 points, and Sears had 12.
Saint Mary’s started ice cold from 3-point range for a fourth straight game. Saint Mary’s shot 3-of-35 on first-half 3-point shots through its final four games.
In their previous three games, Saint Mary’s 3-point shooters made 2-of-13 against Pepperdine and 0-of-16 against Gonzaga in the WCC Tournament, then 7-of-25 in the NCAA opener against Vanderbilt despite a 2-of-18 start.
The Gaels led this finale for all of 30 seconds, with two leads quickly evaporating in the opening minutes. They had no first-half turnovers as opposed to Alabama’s nine.
Ross, who keyed Saint Mary’s first-round comeback with a team-high 15 points, twisted his left ankle 5 ½ minutes into the game. He returned five minutes later, but he missed his first five shots from the floor and was scoreless at halftime.
Marciulionis, in a halftime interview on TNT, said the Gaels’ comeback simply rested on an inability to make shots, improve defensively and “make easy-shot layups. We just couldn’t finish the shots. Got to focus better. Got to make shots because it’s a big game and we need to step it up in the second half.”
Not enough shots were made, not by the Gaels, at least.