by Michael Vernetti

Saint Mary’s should have charged double for last night’s game, a 72-58 home win over New Mexico — once for a clinic in how to run an offense, and again for a clinic in how not to run an offense.

It was that kind of a game, in addition to being a satisfying redemptive effort for last year’s loss to the Lobos in the middle of a three-game losing streak that threatened to derail the Gaels’ season. Despite Saint Mary’s 107-28 romp over D-II Stanislaus State on Monday night, the New Mexico game looked like a typical first-of-the-season effort — uneven, full of errors and difficult to watch at times.

Ditto for New Mexico, which opened its season with a 92-55 win over Texas Southern, but is dealing with a slew of new faces. How new? According to ESPN+ play-by-play man Alex Jensen, the Lobos’ center, 6’10” Nelly Junior Joseph from Nigeria, showed up on campus only this week. Joseph played the last three years for Iona, where he was first-team all-MEAC under New Mexico Coach Richard Pitino’s dad, Rick Pitino. Kind of a shared family treasure.

New Mexico is fully immersed in the portal game currently plaguing just about everyone in college hoops except the Gaels. The player Joseph replaces on the Lobos’ front line, shaggy-haired forward Josiah Allick, who gave the Gaels all sorts of problems last year, has moved on to Nebraska, following stints at New Mexico and Missouri-Kansas City.

Among eight transfers Pitino is getting to know this year is the Lobo’s fifth starter and second new face the Gaels met last night, Mustapha Anzil, a 6’9″ senior from Helsinki, who played three years for Dayton.

Now for the good clinic — the opening minutes of last night’s game. Point guard Augustus Marciulionis, who was on a string against Stan State — in and out of the game as his fouls mounted — took charge from the outset. He stole the ball on the Lobos’ first possession and fed Gael superstar Aidan Mahaney for the first of Mahaney’s five three-pointers in a 25-point effort.

Next time down, Goose probed the lane, drew pressure and dropped off a pass to Mitchell Saxen, who scored easily on a dunk. That worked so well, the team of Marciulionis and Saxen attacked the paint again, this time with Goose delivering a beautiful pocket pass to the charging Saxen for another bucket. After a Mahaney floater in the paint, the Gaels were up 9-2 and Goose had three assists before four minutes had elapsed.

A second steal engineered by Gael forward Joshua Jefferson led to another Mahaney score and a 13-2 lead — it was beginning to look like Stan State all over again. For Goose’s peace of mind, it would have been good to freeze the game at that point, but there was much more to come. Apparently suffering a mind lapse, Goose bungled a simple inbounds pass to Saxen, the Lobos swiped the ball and were off to the races.

That gave Lobo guard Donovan Dent an opening, and he took advantage with a lay-up to slow the Gael momentum and make the score a more respectable 13-4. Dent, one of a trio of outstanding guards who are the heart and soul of Pitino’s attack, led all Lobos with 15 points. Deadly jump-shooter Jamal Mashburn, Jr. never got untracked against the Gaels, and ended up with just seven points, and the third head of the snake, Jaelen House, didn’t suit up for the game after suffering a late leg injury.

Turnovers, fouls

Goose’s errant inbounds pass was one of seven first-half turnovers by the Gaels, which, coupled with 10 fouls, made their offense a herky-jerky affair. Forward Alex Ducas, who was limited against Stan State after a frightening fall on a rebound attempt, failed to ignite against New Mexico (three points on 1-4 shooting), but started both the fouling and turnover parades.

In the opening minutes of the game, Ducas was tripped by Lobos’ freshman JT Toppin as he headed up court. This followed an earlier foul by Toppin for grabbing Jefferson around the shoulders as Jefferson sliced through the lane. Ducas apparently felt the freshman needed some remedial attention, and lunged his shoulder into Toppin’s chest, committing both a foul and a turnover.

Goose repeated his Stan State experience with a silly reach-in foul at the 12:13 mark, and was quickly replaced in the lineup with the Gaels’ new defensive enforcer, Chris Howell. There followed a series of fouls and turnovers by the Gaels that prevented them from establishing any flow: Mahaney was stripped at mid-court but saved a run-out by tying up the ball, Goose committed another foul after coming back in, and got the same hook as earlier, Jefferson was stripped maneuvering in the paint, substitute center Harry Wessels was called for traveling and Saxen was stripped in the paint.

After Saxen committed the Gaels’ 10th foul on a scramble under the Lobos’ basket, New Mexico had creeped to within six points at 29-23 with a little less than four minutes left in the half. It looked as if the Gaels might lose their momentum going into the halftime break, but Saxen stemmed the tide by sinking two free throws to push the lead back to 31-23.

Then, the Gaels’ depth made itself felt, as Wessels came back in for Saxen and grabbed a rebound that led to a put-back under extreme pressure from New Mexico. Wessels sealed the deal by making the and-one free throw, Mahaney sank another three-pointer and Wessels made still another put-back for a 40-25 halftime lead.

Second half adjustments

The second half was mostly about not repeating the first half’s gaffes for the Gaels, and they cut down on both fouls and turnovers — somewhat. After giving up the ball seven times in the first half, they surrendered only six turnovers in the second for a respectable game total of 13, but they accounted for only 13 assists.

They cut their fouls to eight from 10, but Wessels racked up four fouls to offset his 12 points and five rebounds. The foul total of 18 was actually a point of pride for Saint Mary’s, as New Mexico routinely draws fouls at a high clip — forcing 23 free throws per game last year. The Gaels gave up only 15 free throws and took 25 themselves.

Erratic play notwithstanding, Saint Mary’s eased to a 22-point lead, 53-31, with a little more than thirteen minutes left, and held off the Lobos the rest of the way. The Gael shock troop of Rory Hawke, Jordan Ross and Cade Bennett got into the fray at about the two-minute mark, and Ross immediately brought some oohs and ahs from the sellout crowd with a nifty pass to Mason Forbes for an easy lay-up. Ross, the four-star freshman recruit from Compass Prep, then nailed a jumper in the paint to remind the fans of the Gaels’ continuing wealth of talent.

The Gaels finish off a busy first week of the season with a 5 p.m. game Sunday against Weber State in Moraga, then go back to practice for the Continental Tire tournament in Las Vegas on Friday, Nov. 17. The first game is against national championship contender from last season, San Diego State, at 6:30 on ESPN+. Depending on how the San Diego State game turns out, the Gaels will then play either Xavier from the Big East or Washington from the all-but-extinct Pac-12 on the 19th

Aidan Mahaney, shown above in a game from last season, led all scorers with 25 points against New Mexico, sinking 5-10 three-point attempts. Photo courtesy of Tod Fierner.