Gael fans who witnessed Thursday’s disheartening 69-63 loss to Pepperdine probably had modest hopes heading into Saturday’s contest against a weaker Loyola Marymount squad: cut down on turnovers, make a few free throws.

Turns out that was too much to expect. The suddenly-erratic Gaels more than doubled the turnover number against Pepperdine — seven — to 17 against LMU. They matched that with 17 assists, eliminating the outstanding hallmark of their offense when it was worth the name — a dominating assist-to-turnover ratio.

Free throw accuracy was better — how could it not be? — but 11-18 is hardly anything to write home about, especially considering inexplicable lapses down the stretch against LMU. No greater evidence exists that a group of aliens has taken over the bodies of the young men we knew as Gaels than the sight of Evan Fitzner — who had missed a total of four free throws all season — missing both attempts with 23.5 seconds left and LMU trailing only by seven points.

As if that sight was not difficult enough to digest, another usually dead-eyed free throw shooter, Emmett Naar, made only one of two chances a few seconds later. What’s going on here?

The fatigue factor

I have resolutely refused to accept facile explanations for the Gaels recent troubles — five straight games without reaching the 70-point threshold — such as “They’re worn out” or “Bennett can’t coach.” I still reject the latter — alien abduction is not really logical in the case of our outstanding coach — but have got to concede the possibility of some combination of mental and physical fatigue becoming a factor.

The reason a part of me still rejects this is simple logic. These are 19-and-20-year olds who only play twice a week, usually in the comfort of their own facility. So what if Naar and his sidekick Joe Rahon play nearly every minute of every game? Didn’t Mickey McConnell and freshman Matthew Dellavedova log the same minutes in 2009-10 when they led the Gaels to a rout of Gonzaga in the WCC Tournament championship and a Sweet 16 run in March Madness? Indeed they did.

But something is terribly wrong with the Gaels at this point, and a lackluster 68-62 win over a 11-15 LMU squad playing without its best player — Adom Jacko — hardly indicates that a week of practices in Moraga has straightened them out. Jacko scored 21 points and pulled down eight rebounds as the Gaels throttled LMU 73-48 a few weeks ago in Los Angeles, but without him — he is struggling with back issues — they battled the Gaels more evenly.

After posting a fairly impressive 33-21 halftime lead that featured the return of their three-point prowess, the Gaels seemed on the verge of continuing their domination by surging to a 20-point margin, 43-23, with under 13 minutes left. From that point on, LMU outscored the Gaels 39-25 en route to a 41-point second-half performance. Along with the Gaels’ continued inability to reach the once-routine 70-point mark, the LMU meltdown continued the alarming trend of allowing opponents more points in the second half than the first. It doesn’t take a degree in science to detect signs of fatigue in that pattern.

Guards bearing the brunt

The Gael offensive breakdown is centered mainly in the play of Naar  and Rahon, who had been the backbone of the team’s smart, efficient operation until the first Pepperdine loss on Jan. 9. Once league — and national — leaders in assist-to-turnover ratio, the twosome posted numbers of seven assists, six turnovers (Naar) and seven assists, five turnovers (Rahon) against LMU.

Naar seems more affected than Rahon, and he has begun to match his three-point shooting demise — one of three Saturday night — with ball-handling problems. After bouncing a pass off the heel of Dane Pineau on the Gaels’ first possession, Naar then dribbled into a turnover by allowing an opposing player to tie him up while probing the paint with no apparent purpose. Bennett then did something remarkable — he actually benched Naar at the 12-minute mark of the first half. The Gaels’ only functioning reserve guard, Stefan Gonzalez, had entered the lineup a few minutes earlier as a sub for Calvin Hermanson, and remained to share share the back court with Rahon.

This was one of the few times this season that Gonzalez has functioned as a guard rather than a sub for Hermanson at the small forward position. And it seemed to be working. Before Naar left the court Gonzalez nailed a three-pointer from the corner — his first contribution in several games — then sank a truly long-range three-pointer a few minutes later. This logical solution to an obvious problem — Naar’s funk — was a hopeful sign for Gael fans. It is not heresy for college coaches to yank players who are not performing well and substitute someone else.

But it has been anathema for Bennett throughout his tenure at Saint Mary’s, and any fair-minded observer would conclude that his predeliction has worked out pretty well. Bennett sticks with his starters from game one to the season’s  bitter end, and he is usually rewarded with unswerving loyalty and  team unity. That history notwithstanding, Gael fans were probably willing to break the pattern if it gave the team a lift.

Back to the past

The Naar-on-the-bench experiment lasted fewer than three minutes, however, as Naar went back in and Gonzalez resumed his usual position riding the pine. So much for shaking things up. To be fair, Naar did make some outstanding contributions both in play-making and shooting for the rest of the game, ending with 13 points and seven assists. He deserves credit for substituting drives and floaters in the paint for his missing three-point output.

If anything, Rahon took on the curse of fumbleitis than Naar initiated, combining lazy passes that were intercepted by LMU defenders with a propensity for allowing defenders to strip him of the ball. He, too, seems to be in a funk, ending the game with nine points on 3-5 shooting and a perfect 2-2 from the free throw line, where he has been shaky all season. That was a ray of light in the dark shadows of the Gaels’ free-throw-shooting performance.

There were stars for the Gaels in contrast to the uninspired play of Naar and Rahon. Hermanson is emerging as perhaps the team’s most consistent offensive threat, leading Gael scoring with 16 points on 6-11 shooting. More important than his scoring totals is his willingness to take shots in crucial times whether he has been hot or not. His confidence is growing game-by-game, and that is a crucial ingredient as his teammates negotiate these troubling times. Hermanson logged 37 minutes against LMU, certainly a high-water mark for a player who used to be on Bennett’s extremely short leash.

The consistently inconsistent Fitzner put in a solid performance as well, following Hermanson with 12 points on 4-8 shooting, all buckets coming on three-pointers (4-6). Fitzner, another oft-benched member of the Gaels, put in 30 minutes himself, a sign that Bennett is beginning to trust that twosome.

Wither Landale?

Alas, also gone missing for the Gaels in addition to their previously-excellent guard play is the front court dominance provided by the tandem of Pineau and Jock Landale. Landale confessed in a refreshingly candid media interview a few weeks ago that he was too “inside his own head” at the season’s beginning, worrying too much about perceived shortcomings. He professed to be over that nonsense and to be focused on helping his team, to an obviously beneficial end.

Maybe he has had a relapse. Landale possesses a perfectly good — and almost unstoppable — right-hand baby hook that defenders simply can’t defend against. In the last few games he has abandoned that move in favor of a spin move to the right that depends on a left-handed finish. Whether capable of that finish or not, he has yet to effectively complete the spin, usually leaving the ball behind as he moves toward the basket.

Do the Gaels have a team shrink who can coax him out of his head again? One can only hope, as Bennett has apparently seen enough of Whirling Dervish Landale and longs for Unstoppable Baby Hook Landale. After a couple of failed inside moves and a turnover in the paint, Bennett sent him to the bench where he remained for the rest of the game, logging only six minutes.

Even with Pineau left to man the paint by himself the Gaels seemed to have an edge since Jacko was missing from the LMU lineup. Pineau was on the verge of compiling a double-double — he had nine points and 10 rebounds — when LMU resorted to something the Gaels have not seen this year, if ever — a hack-a-Dane strategy. LMU’s wily coach Mike Dunlap, who has done a stint in the NBA as well as on several college campuses, instructed his post man, Shamar Johnson, to foul Pineau intentionally on a Gael possession with just over a minute left.

The Gaels had a seemingly-comfortable 11-point lead at that time, 62-51, but Dunlap waged a take-no-prisoners battle down to the last second of this game, whether in a reasonable hope for a miracle win or to inspire his troops to keep fighting. His strategy worked somewhat, as Pineau made only one of two free throws — a seeming breakthrough after his abysmal 2-8 effort against Pepperdine — and LMU sank a three-pointer on its next possession to cut the margin to 63-54. More tellingly, Bennett benched Pineau to prevent another hack attack.

Even with a mind-warping Hermanson foul on LMU’s Steven Haney as Haney launched his only successful shot of the night, a three-pointer that Hermanson helped turn into a four-point play, the Gaels limped to the finish line. It is a fair question whether other coaches will follow Dunlap’s lead and begin fouling Pineau early in Gael possessions, and becomes one other thing Bennett must wrestle with as he prepares his team for a daunting two-game road trip to Portland and Gonzaga.

Calvin Hermanson has become one of the Gaels’ most reliable offensive threats, leading the team against LMU with 16 points. Photo by Mike Krizenbeck.

It’s official: the Gaels have hit a wall.

For the fourth consecutive game Saint Mary’s failed to score at least 70 points Thursday against Pepperdine, falling 69-63. Seventy has been a talisman for the Gaels over the years — reach it and they win an overwhelming percentage of games. But now they can’t reach it, scoring 68, 59, 60 and 63 the last four times out, splitting those games 2-2.

The well-oiled machine that has been their offense this year is still functioning — the wheels have not fallen off the bus — but it is not producing enough. Indeed, the Gaels’ pass-happy attack, burning up most of the 30-second clock on each possession, has begun to work against them as they play increasingly from behind. The team of unselfishness can’t find anyone to take — or make — a tough shot when they need it.

Against Pepperdine, the Gaels went 2-12 over the final 5:47 of the game. There is no Waldow on this team, no Delly, no Omar, no Diamon, no Mickey. Joe Rahon and Emmett Naar have been the most consistent scorers, but Naar has lost his touch on the three-pointer — 0-3 Thursday — and Rahon may have exhausted his supply of miracles after engineering come-from-behind wins over Gonzaga, Pacific and others.

After leading the Gaels in scoring at the half with 11, Rahon did not score a single point in the second half, and had the same number of turnovers — three — as assists. For the player who has led the WCC in assist-to-turnover ratio all season, that is a deadly statistic.

What the Waves did

Pepperdine didn’t show anything new Thursday night since defeating the Gaels 67-64 Jan. 9 in Malibu. Indeed, Saint Mary’s blunted the sharpest weapon in that attack — forward Jett Raines — by holding him to 12 points instead of the 24 he piled up in Firestone Fieldhouse (“The biggest house in Malibu”). Raines’ senior counterpart Stacy Davis, who is moving inexorably toward Pepperdine’s all-time scoring leadership, was also relatively contained at 13 points.

It was the quickness and athleticism of the Waves’ Lamond Murray Jr. (16 points) and Amadi Udenyi (14 points, all in the second half) that exposed a glaring Gael weakness and gave Pepperdine the edge. Following a brief Saint Mary’s rally that carried them to a seven-point lead (47-40) at the 13:57 mark, Udenyi went on a tear against Naar and Rahon, scoring all 14 of his points before the clock ticked down to 5:32. That put the Waves up 59-57 and the Gaels never regained the lead. Murray inserted the dagger with a little more than a minute left, faking Rahon off his feet and sinking a short jumper to move the score to 65-61.

The Gaels are not a quick lot. They depend on poise and execution, along with exceptional shooting, to conquer more athletic opponents, but the limits of that attack were apparent against Pepperdine. Ever since another quick Pepperdine guard, Jeremy Major, intercepted a lazy Rahon pass on the Gaels’ first possession and raced for a lay-up, the Waves beat Saint Mary’s to the punch on hustle plays. They had six steals, three by Udenyi, and led many Gaels fans to long for the days of a Wayne Hunter or a Stephen Holt, when Saint Mary’s forced the action with steals and stifling perimeter defense.

The road ahead

All is not lost for this Gael team that has overachieved and defied expectations since the opening tip of the 2015-16 season. Of five conference games left, four are winnable — Loyola Marymount in Moraga on Saturday, Portland and San Francisco on the road, and Santa Clara back in Moraga on Feb. 25. Given their performance since beating Gonzaga at home on Jan. 21, it is not reasonable to expect a repeat in the Zags’ house on Feb. 20.

If that scenario plays out, the Gaels would compile a 14-4 conference record (23-5 overall) and a probable second-place finish heading into the WCC Tournament March 4-8 in Las Vegas. Although not as glorious as seemed possible just a week ago — before losses to BYU and Pepperdine — it would still give them a shot at the 25-victory mark that coach Randy Bennett covets, and a possible rubber match against Gonzaga for the WCC Tournament title and  the automatic NCAA tournament bid that comes with it.

The Gaels are probably not still a candidate for an at-large NCAA bid, so it may be all or nothing come March in Vegas. That’s enough motivation to keep this group scrapping for the next three weeks.

Dane Pineau, shown above battling San Diego earlier this year, compiled a gritty double-double (12 points, 10 rebounds) against Pepperdine, but shot a miserable 2-8 from the free throw line to typify the Gaels’ frustration. Photo courtesy of Tod Fierner.

So now comes to Moraga the freewheeling Pepperdine Waves, a team that takes particular joy in upsetting the WCC’s top teams. This was the season that the Waves were supposed to step up from pesky challenger to title contender, but it hasn’t happened.

Sitting at 7-6 in the WCC (14-10 overall) with wins over Saint Mary’s and BYU, Pepperdine has lost too many winnable games to be anything but a spoiler down the stretch. Case in point was their performance following their Jan. 9 upset of the Gaels in Malibu (67-64): they lost their next game on the road to an eminently beatable Santa Clara squad 62-60. Overall, they are 4-6 on the road, which has prevented a WCC title run.

The Waves blew their last opportunity to affect the conference championship last Saturday, coming close to Gonzaga on their home court but once again falling victim to poor free throw shooting (11-17) in a 69-66 loss. They warmed up for that disappointment by going 17-for-37 from the free throw line en route to a 73-70 loss to Portland. That’s 20 missed free throws in a three-point loss.

That being said, Randy Bennett’s Gaels will be anything but relaxed Thursday night as they battle to remain in a first-place WCC tie with Gonzaga. Pepperdine plays loose and free, anchored by their senior forwards Stacy Davis and Jett Raines. Point guard Jeremy Major is among the league’s best, and his back-court mate Amadi Udenyi, a De La Salle grad, is a potent counterpart.

One of the Waves’ problems this season has been Udenyi’s struggle to recover from an Achilles injury suffered toward the end of last season. That battle, which has mainly affected his three-point shooting, was exacerbated by a season-ending injury to promising sophomore guard Shawn Olden, robbing the Waves of a competent reserve.

Another cog in the Waves’ attack is mercurial guard/forward Lamond Murray Jr., who is capable of quick scoring bursts and prolonged absences, often in the same game. To this veteran lineup the Waves added one of the WCC’s outstanding freshmen, 6-6 forward Kameron Edwards. In sum, the Waves possess experience, quickness and lightening-like scoring ability, but are not particularly deep.

Paging Mr. Raines

One of the key questions the Gaels face is which Raines will show up Thursday night. Back on that forgettable January in Malibu, Raines was an offensive nightmare Saint Mary’s couldn’t solve. He scorched Gael forwards Evan Fitzner and Kyle Clark for 24 points, including 10-12 free throws. Saint Mary’s fans could be excused if they shouted at their televisions during the Pepperdine-Gonzaga game, as Raines posted a mere eight points and went one-for-three from the free throw line.

“What, you only show up against Saint Mary’s?” might have been on many fans’ minds watching Raines in that game, but, in truth, the Gonzaga performance was more in keeping with Raines’ career than the Saint Mary’s one. He is a career seven-point-a-game scorer and usually chips in three or four rebounds. His 24 against the Gaels and a career-best 27 against Portland, where he was again potent from the free throw line with a 10-14 performance, were anomalies. Nevertheless, the Gaels know what he is capable of, and can’t afford to get burned as they did in Malibu.

The Gaels’ challenge

If Pepperdine is destined to play only a spoiler’s role as the WCC season winds down, Saint Mary’s has its season-long goals well in sight. They have suffered two sub-par offensive performances in a row, scoring only 59 points against BYU in a 70-59 loss and 60 against San Diego in a 60-43 win. It is doubtful that even an inspired defensive game will hold Pepperdine below 50 points, so the once-potent Gael scoring machine will be called on to crank up the volume.

Pepperdine’s guards Major and Udenyi harass their counterpoints ceaselessly, and make up one of the WCC’s most potent perimeter defensive duos. They held the Gaels’ back court of Joe Rahon and Emmett Naar to a total of 15 points on a combined 5-14 shooting, including only two three-pointers. More than that, they took Rahon and Naar out of the game, which devolved into a series of lobs into Gael post men Jock Landale and Dane Pineau. Gone were the probes into the paint, the lay-ups and the lay-offs that are the highlight of SMC’s attack.

For their parts, Landale and Pineau performed well against Pepperdine, scoring 16 points each. Forward Calvin Hermanson also had a strong game with 14 points and had a shot at a game-tying three-pointer in the final seconds that was slightly off. The big story offensively was Fitzner’s goose-egg, an anemic 0-2 output partially caused by foul trouble from trying to guard Raines. It goes without saying that the Gaels need something more from Fitzner to avoid a catastrophic loss.

At 10-2 in the WCC with six conference games left, this is the time when Saint Mary’s answers the question “Gaels or not-Gaels?” The pre-2013-14 Gaels could be counted upon to rise to the occasion and make a strong push to the finish, including the WCC Tournament where they battled Gonzaga for the championship five years in a row. For the past two seasons a lesser version of the Gaels has limped into the homestretch and bombed out of the WCC Tournament.

The game against Pepperdine will provide a strong hint which version of the Gaels is now in operation.

Pepperdine’s Jett Raines, shown driving against Kyle Clark above, was a major thorn in the Gaels’ side last month in Malibu. The Gaels must contain him to reverse a loss suffered on that day. Photo courtesy of Pepperdine Athletics.

Parity is all the rage in college basketball this season. Kentucky is ordinary, Duke is out of the Top 25 and the number one team changes weekly, with Villanova being the current flavor of the week.

The WCC joined the fun in a big way last week, with the following highlights:

BYU held serve at home against Saint Mary’s, then lost to former league doormat Pacific by 77-72.

Pacific prepared for its take-down of BYU by losing to current  doormat, San Diego, 54-43.

San Diego demonstrated its consistency following the Pacific win by scoring only 43 points in a 60-43 loss to Saint Mary’s.

Pepperdine, bracing for its biggest week of the season with Portland and Gonzaga at home where it was 9-0 this season, laid an egg against Portland to lose 73-70. This was an epic fail by the Waves, and they had to shoot a nightmarish 17-37 from the free throw line to accomplish it.

Undaunted, Pepperdine then gave Gonzaga everything the Zags feared before losing 69-66.

This topsy-turvy activity produced some changes to WCC standings, with Gonzaga pulling even with Saint Mary’s for the top spot after the Gaels stumbled against BYU (Gonzaga is at 11-2 and Saint Mary’s is 10-2, but the Gaels will eventually make up the one-game difference. It’s the losses that count.)

For its performance against Pacific, BYU dropped two games behind the Saint Mary’s-Gonzaga tandem at 8-4, while Pepperdine all but eliminated itself from championship contention and teeters on dropping out of the top four by falling to 7-6. San Francisco is creeping closer to the Waves at 6-6.

Heading into the stretch

As the season enters the hand-to-hand combat phase, holding oneself together becomes all-important. “We came ready to play. We were excited to play,” said Randy Bennett after the Gaels’ grind-it-out win over San Diego. He noted how difficult it is to get wins on the road when the season draws to a close and every team knows the others’ secrets. “It’s not easy to do what we did [against San Diego],” he added.

Whether the Gaels righted themselves by holding the Toreros to 43 points is an open question: it undoubtedly showed character to win the third game of a road trip following a disheartening loss against BYU, but Saint Mary’s is anything but a highly-functioning offensive machine right now. Defense held the day against San Diego, and, indeed, the Gaels’ defense was excellent against BYU. It held the Cougars, who average 80+ points per game, to 70 on their home court. That should have been enough to produce a win.

Instead, that solid work was undone by a 22-point second half in Provo, marginally improved to 25 points in the second half against San Diego. The Gaels have been utilizing only two-fifths of their offense, with Joe Rahon and Calvin Hermanson going for 17 and 14 against BYU and 13 and 12 against San Diego. Although Dane Pineau showed a pulse with a double-double (10 points, 10 boards) against San Diego, Emmett Naar, Evan Fitzner and Jock Landale were missing in action for the second game in a row.

It is particularly painful to watch Naar struggle, as he was the poster boy for the Gaels’ offense for much of the year. Shooting in the 60% range on three-point attempts, handing out assists by the bushel, he was poised and effective when the Gaels had the ball. Back to back 1-4 efforts from three-point range against BYU and San Diego, however, have left him tentative and ineffective.

The Gaels return to the laboratory, otherwise known as McKeon Pavilion, this week for home contests against Pepperdine and the woeful Loyola Marymount Lions. Bennett can afford to relax his emphasis on defense and rebounding and work on restoring the firepower to his offense. Prime goals will be to re-energize the Naar, Fitzner and Landale combination that elevates the Gaels from so-so to outstanding on offense.

Avenging the earlier loss to Pepperdine in Malibu should provide sufficient motivation, while looking ahead to the final crucial road trip to Portland and Gonzaga should keep the Gaels grounded. They have stumbled, but sharing first place with preseason prohibitive favorites Gonzaga is not a bad position to be in. As long as they don’t make it worse.

Headband and goggles in place, the Gaels’ Calvin Hermanson has come up big in back-to-back games against BYU and San Diego. Photo courtesy of Tod Fierner.

Got your tickets to the WCC Tournament in Las Vegas yet?

If not, you’d better act fast to catch the climax of Saint Mary’s unlikely bid for an NCAA Tournament berth. As the Gaels made painfully clear Thursday night in succumbing meekly (70-59) to BYU, they don’t seem equipped to sweep their remaining eight games, particularly road contests against Gonzaga in Spokane and Portland in Portland.

Randy Bennett’s precocious pups, nurtured in the comforting environs of their home court, are not ready to take their show on the road and duplicate the McKeon Pavilion performance. Losses to Pepperdine in Malibu and BYU in Provo, combined with a stumbling 68-65 win over Pacific in Stockton, raise red flags that point to a showdown in Las Vegas.

No more prophetic words have ever been spoken than those of a BYU-TV announcer at the 13:51 mark Thursday night, after BYU had turned a 37-33 halftime deficit into a three-point lead at 44-41. With 18,000 home fans cheering loudly, he said, “Bennett wanted to find out how tough his guys were. They’re going to find out in this setting.”

Answer not encouraging

The answer was not to Bennett’s liking, as BYU outscored the Gaels 13-2 over the next three minutes to move ahead by nine points at the 11:24 mark. The turnaround included such lowlights as Jock Landale missing a short hook shot, Emmett Naar being stripped on a drive, Calvin Hermanson missing an open three-pointer and BYU guards Nick (Sucker Punch) Emery and Chase Fischer cashing in on three-pointers of their own.

The Gaels were far from done, as Joe Rahon summoned the heroic effort he displayed in comeback wins over Gonzaga and Pacific by hitting a crucial three-pointer to bring the deficit to six. Naar finished a breakaway after a steal to cut the lead to four at 52-48,  but then the Gaels faltered again. After getting a stop, they had the ball with a chance to cut the lead to two or one, but Naar gave the ball up on a careless dribble and BYU’s Kyle Collinsworth dunked on a runout.

Evan Fitzner, who had a game that might give him nightmares for months, then carelessly threw the ball away, giving BYU a chance to increase their lead. The next shot was missed but Dane Pineau committed a key foul by pushing off on BYU center Korbin Kaufusi, whom the Gaels managed to make look like an NBA prospect.

Kaufusi tried to help out the Gaels by missing his second free throw, but Fitzner compounded his turnover gaffe by crashing the lane too soon and giving Kaufusi another chance. He sank it to push the BYU lead to eight, 56-48 with 8:41 left. Bennett replaced Fitzner in the lineup.

The Gaels weren’t done with their spate of carelessness, however, as Landale missed another bunny on the next possession (he was 2-8 on the night), Naar sent BYU’s Fischer to the free throw line for an automatic two points, then coughed up another turnover (he had three turnovers to four assists) that gave Collinsworth an opportunity to polish his dunking-on-runout skills. That put the score at 60-48 with 7:51 left and the party was just about over except for some late heroics by Hermanson, who sandwiched a put-back basket between two three-pointers, and Rahon, who made another three-pointer to cut the deficit to six points, 65-59, with 3:27 left.

Gaels falter again

Down six with the ball and more than three minutes on the clock looked like a promising scenario, but not on this night. Rahon made one of his few tactical mistakes of the night on the ensuing possession, missing a mismatch with Landale on Emery in front of the basket. Instead of tossing the ball to Landale, Rahon attempted another three-pointer. In turning for the rebound, Landale inadvertently bull-dozed Emery, sending BYU’s leading free-throw shooter to the line.

Emery made one free throw for a seven-point lead, and the Gaels responded with an almost truth-defying series of missteps: Naar missed an open lay-up, Rahon fouled out defending Fischer (one made free throw), Naar missed another lay-up and a three-pointer on successive possessions and Fitzner committed still another turnover. For the night, Fitzner was one-for-six shooting, with two turnovers and the lane violation. He was the poster child for the Gaels’ ineffectiveness, with Naar close behind.

Among a spate of unflattering statistics, the Gaels’ anemic second-half output of 22 points on 23.3% shooting and rebound deficit of 11 (44 to 33) stand out. Above those abysmal performances stands the strategic advantage given BYU coach Dave Rose for keeping Kaufusi and Nate Austin on the floor for most of the second half. Not only did Austin, who hadn’t scored a point in three preceding games, sink two crucial jump shots, but his height and that of Kaufusi befuddled the Gaels completely. Bennett never figured out a way to counter this overwhelming mismatch.

So, it’s on to San Diego Saturday before the Gaels come home for a crucial rematch with Pepperdine on Feb. 11. Bennett only has that brief respite to right his wayward ship before it sets sail for the Pacific Northwest and the Portland-Gonzaga one-two punch on Feb. 18-20. The Gaels have not demonstrated the moxie it takes to compete against quality teams on their home courts, perhaps a forgivable shortcoming in an inexperienced squad. They don’t have much time to either figure that out or risk a gloomy end to what has been a glorious season.

The Gaels couldn’t match the favorable advantage of Joe Rahon over Kyle Collinsworth, shown above in a New Year’s Eve game in Moraga, in Thursday’s rematch in Provo, when Collinsworth scored 17 points with nine rebounds and seven assists. Photo courtesy of Tod Fierner.

There’ll be about 19,000 of them, those famously fair-minded BYU fans packing the Marriott Center when Saint Mary’s comes to town Thursday night. They’ll be smelling blood after their beloved Cougars redeemed themselves with a solid 88-77 win over Pepperdine last Saturday. They’ll be high (if a Mormon can be called “high”) on their team’s 16-game home winning streak which has put BYU in its preferred WCC position: reeling on the edge of elimination at 7-3, but counting on a late-season push to make things right.

In another words, ready to give a warm Utah welcome to the boys from Moraga.

For the Gaels, this is another hurdle in their ongoing struggle to convince critics that the 2015-16 Saint Mary’s team is different from its predecessors in the previous two seasons —  both of which lost to BYU in Provo. For the most part, Randy Bennett’s Gaels have accomplished that goal by beating Stanford, UC Irvine and Gonzaga at home and coming within a Jabari Bird three-pointer of toppling Cal in Berkeley. They sit alone atop the WCC at 9-1 (18-2 overall), and just outside the major college polls’ top 25 rankings.

They know that their lofty perch is as precarious as a tightrope walker in a hurricane, and that beating BYU on the road is another “must” if they are to ensure an at-large NCAA Tournament bid (failing an automatic bid for winning the WCC Tournament). Their previous game, a 68-65 win over Pacific that was closer than the score indicates, can be read as a toughening road experience for a mostly home-bound team or an indication that they are vulnerable outside the Moraga town limits.

What’s gonna happen?

Of the many variables in Thursday night’s contest, the two main ones involve BYU leader Kyle Collinsworth and Saint Mary’s leader Joe Rahon. Calling Collinsworth BYU’s leader verges on massive understatement considering the role he has assumed following the graduation of all-time BYU leading scorer Tyler Haws (yes, he outscored Saint Jimmer). With Haws threatening to blow out any opponent any time, Collinsworth was more of an annoying afterthought in the Cougars’ attack. Although he set an NCAA record for triple-doubles, Collinsworth was the second most worrisome thing about BYU before this year.

If he’s not the whole enchilada now, he is certainly the main course. His performance in the Pepperdine win was indicative of his importance, as he scored 24 points and handed out 10 assists, a mere double-double for the player who has brought the triple-double to prominence in college hoops. Although he pulled down only four rebounds against the Waves, he became the school’s all-time leading rebounder at 923 with many games to go this season (by comparison, the Gaels’ all-time board man, Diamon Simpson, grabbed 1130, but he wasn’t a point guard).

As an aside, Collinsworth is a top 10 finalist for the Bob Cousy Award given annually to the country’s best point guard.

And yet, given all that success, Collinsworth was the most frustrated Cougar when BYU fell to Saint Mary’s 85-74 on New Year’s Eve. His line of eight points on 4-15 shooting, six boards and six assists was paltry compared to what he is capable of, and was a huge contributing factor in the Gaels’ win. What happened?

Joe Rahon happened.

Rahon to the rescue

Gael fans are used to Rahon’s success leading the offense. He carried the attack against Stanford and Cal, darting into the lane among various very tall defenders and making them look silly with a variety of lay-ups and runners. He rallied his teammates when all seemed lost against Gonzaga, and repeated those heroics against Pacific with two crucial three-pointers book-ending a dramatic steal. Yet, for all his offensive talents, Rahon the defender was the main story in the Gaels’ New Year’s Eve win.

He simply denied Collinsworth entry to the paint, where the Cougar leader usually bends his 6-5 frame around defenses for lay-ups and short jumpers. Not a proficient outside shooter, Collinsworth was a duck out of water in the Moraga match-up. Rahon took him out of his game.

Can he do it again? College teams succeed by adopting to whatever obstacles opponents throw up. The BYU coach, Dave Rose, may not look like a graduate of Houston’s famous Phi Slama Jama attack under the leadership of Clyde “The Glide” Drexler, but he was, indeed, on those teams. And although BYU’s offense is not exactly like the organized chaos of Houston in 1982-84, it is not that different, either. The Cougars play fast, and substitute three-point marksmen for the jam-masters of Rose’s alma mater.

Rose has never been head coach anywhere but BYU, and his 273-95 record there attests to his savvy and experience. He and Collinsworth will certainly have a few wrinkles to throw at the Gaels, and especially Rahon, on Thursday night. They might try to loosen up the Gaels inside by turning their three-point experts Chase Fischer (23 against the Gaels last time) and Nick (Sucker Punch) Emery loose early.

They may try to exploit the foul-prone Gael post tandem of Dane Pineau and Jock Landale with forwards Kyle Davis and Corbin Kaufusi banging inside. It may be something completely different, or it could be what they usually do but with more confidence and speed that comes with playing at home in front of a loud, raucous and unfriendly crowd.

The Gaels’ Bennett has been around, too, compiling a 323-147 record in his 14 seasons at Saint Mary’s. He knows the Gaels probably won’t shoot as well as they did in Moraga (56% from the floor, 42% from three-point range), and will undoubtedly count on defending the sometimes-dominant BYU offense instead of outscoring it. Whether Rahon is once again a hero or someone else steps up, the Gaels are in for a hellacious battle to stay on top of the WCC standings.

In the photo above, BYU super-guard Kyle Collinsworth does against Santa Clara what he wasn’t able to do against Saint Mary’s when the teams met on New Year’s Eve — free-wheel into the paint. Photo courtesy of Jaren Wilkey, BYU photo.

“These guys are great when they’re shooting 60%,” said the father of a Gael player following Saint Mary’s excruciating 68-65 win over Pacific Saturday night. “But they’ve got to learn to play better when they’re not shooting so well.”

Fair enough, but there was more involved in the Gaels’ struggle than poor shooting. It got lost in the end-of-game drama, but this one started off like a repeat of the 78-62 drubbing Saint Mary’s handled Pacific just two weeks ago in Moraga. That was the memorable 15-18 first-half-shooting game, and even more memorable 24-point performance by Jock Landale.

The Gaels were dominant early on in the sequel, going up 13-0, 13-4, and 21-10 at various early points. The descent into road hell began at about the 7-minute mark of the first half with a Fitzner driving lay-up to give the Gaels a 28-15 lead. Saint Mary’s fans were then contemplating a comfortable first-half lead, quiet surrender by the Tigers in the second half and a positive beginning to the back end of the WCC season.

Someone forgot to tell the Tigers, who have responded well to substitute coach Mike Burns and the return to their lineup of three players temporarily suspended as a result of a pending NCAA investigation. The last of these three to return to play, 6-8 post man Eric Thompson, is becoming more of a factor for Pacific, and he played a dramatic role in almost upsetting the Gaels.

After that 28-15 high-water mark, Pacific went on a 24-10 run encompassing the end of the first half and beginning of the second, culminating in their first lead, 42-40 with 15 minutes left in the second half. The key contributors were guards Eric Kobre and T.J. Wallace. Kobre, benefiting from solid screens by his teammates that knocked Gael Emmett Naar out of position, began hitting three-pointers, and Wallace matched him and began attacking the lane as well.

In one first-half segment, Wallace, Kobre and Ray Bowles all hit threes as part of an eight-for-nine shooting spree. Thompson contributed just by being on the floor, as Gael post players Landale and Dane Pineau proved incapable of guarding him without fouling. By the end of the half, Landale had three fouls and Pineau two, and Saint Mary’s coach Randy Bennett was giving the word to freshman big Jordan Hunter to get ready.

Fouls on bigs

This problem of Landale and Pineau accumulating fouls — they both fouled out against Pacific — is getting worse and needs to be addressed. A close review of the game revealed no obvious flaws, as most calls fell into the category of ticky-tack, the kind of routine pushing and shoving that marks any college game. The only semi-egregious foul I found in watching and re-watching the game was a downward arm swipe by Pineau on one possession.

A good example of the head-scratching calls was a play near the end of the first half when Wallace, who resurrected his sinking season with 17 against the Gaels, drove hard into the lane. Landale, attempting to cut off Wallace after he left Joe Rahon in the dust, slid into Wallace’s path. No matter that Wallace plowed forcefully into Landale while sinking a lay-up, Landale was called for blocking and picked up his third foul. It seemed like a no-call situation, but there are seemingly no “no-calls” in this season of “freedom of movement,” and Landale was saddled with a third foul just as the half drew to a  close.

That set the stage for a climactic foul call against Landale with 33 seconds left in the game and the Gaels up by a single point, 66-65. Landale received the ball in the low post and began his crab dribble against Thompson. Both players came together just as Landale prepared for his move to the hoop, and Thompson pulled a flop that would make a European soccer player jealous.

I was immediately reminded of a similar play by ex-Gael Omar Samhan in the 2010 NCAA tournament game against Villanova, whom Samhan was dominating. When a Villanova defender flopped as Samhan moved toward the bucket in the second half, the ref swallowed his whistle, Samhan scored and the Gaels went on to win. No such luck for Landale. In a situation crying for a no call, the ref determined that Landale was charging, blew the whistle and fouled him out.

Other keys

There was more to the game than dubious foul calls and hot-shooting Pacific guards. One of the biggest developments was Naar’s almost total lack of offensive contribution. Naar is the Gaels’ offensive leader, averaging more than 14 PPG entering the Pacific contest, but he shot a miserable 1-8 Saturday night, and missed all three three-point attempts, some badly. He was also exploited repeatedly by the Tigers in freeing up Kobre for three-point attempts — of which Kobre sank four en route to an 18-point game.

Like the Gaels’ foul-prone bigs, Naar’s occasional offensive disappearance is a worrisome trend as the season winds down. He has bounced  back from sub-par games in the past, and Gael coaches and fans fervently hope he does the same next week as Saint Mary’s travels to BYU and San Diego for crucial contests. The Gaels need Naar to score and defend well.

On the bright side was Rahon’s dramatic play in the clutch. At the Gaels’ absolute nadir against Pacific, down by seven points (63-56) with 4:25 left, Rahon sank a momentous three from the top of the arc to cut the lead to four. He then stole the ball from Thompson on the low block, took it up-court and maneuvered into position for a three-point attempt from the right corner. Swish! The lead was down to one and the Gaels had retaken the momentum.

And Landale’s night was memorable not only for the five fouls he accumulated, legitimate or not. On a night when the Gaels were shooting horribly from the free-throw line (13-23 for the game), Landale sank two free throws to put the Gaels ahead 66-65 in the final minute. He had previously intercepted a pass to Thompson and sank a difficult bucket on the ensuing possession to put the Gaels up temporarily by 64-63. Thus, the big Aussie can take credit for giving his teammates successive leads in the game’s final minutes — not too shabby.

And, finally, a word for Hunter, the Gaels’ energetic freshman post player, whom Bennett did put into the game a few times to give Pineau and Landale breaks. He came onto the floor for the game’s final possession after Landale was sent to the bench, and Pacific wasted no time tossing the ball into Thompson’s hands with the game on the line — Saint Mary’s up 66-65.

Hunter, who has committed fouls this season at a rate to make Pineau and Landale look like pikers, defended Thompson perfectly. He moved between Thompson and the basket and extended his 6-10 frame to its highest point without committing the common error of lowering one arm into the shooter’s path. It was just enough to deny Thompson a clear look at the basket and his attempt to give Pacific the lead fell short. The Gaels’ Naar, who also had free-throw troubles in this game (missing two, unheard of for him), sank two clutch free throws in the final seconds and the Gaels were able to get out of town with a hard-earned W. To his credit, Naar also defended Kobre well on Kobre’s last-ditch attempt at a game-tying three-pointer.

On to Provo!

Joe Rahon, shown above scoring against Stanford earlier this year, contributed 13 points and six assists against Pacific. Photo courtesy of Tod Fierner.

Nineteen games into a 29-game season, Saint Mary’s finds itself in sole possession of first place in the WCC at 8-1, boasting the league’s highest RPI (37) and contemplating the possibility of winning a conference championship for the first time since 2012.

Pinch me.

Randy Bennett has taken a team with no returning starters, no seniors and nine freshmen and sophomores into a position few would have envisioned at the season’s offset. And I don’t mean Mark Few, who was undoubtedly one of those coaches who pegged the Gaels for fourth in the league standings.

No game was more emblematic of what the Gaels have become in 2016 than Saturday’s 89-74 win over Portland. Coming just two days after an exhilarating but draining 70-67 win over Gonzaga, no one would have been surprised to see a flat effort. Instead, the Gaels shot 61.5% in the first half, then, deciding that wasn’t good enough, 63% in the second.

They began the second half by making their first 11 shots to extend a seven-point half-time lead to 67-55. And even though Portland stayed close by unleashing a seemingly unending supply of three-point shooters, the Gaels never took their foot off the pedal. Dane Pineau, who was crucial in bringing the Gaels back against Gonzaga with three second-half buckets in the paint, made his first 10 shots before muffing a bunny in the game’s final seconds. By then the lead was see-sawing between 15 and 20 points, however, so it became a point of good-natured ribbing from Pineau’s teammates.

Concentration most important factor

The effort was not funny, though, and gives more hope than any other aspect of the Gaels’ game. The offense, surely continuing to lead the nation in field goal percentage when stats come out on Monday, has been a thing of beauty. The defense has been mostly stalwart, although Bennett will undoubtedly worry about Portland’s 45.9% overall and 45.8% three-point (11-24) shooting percentages. That’s fine, coaches need something to plan their practices around.

But Bennett will not have to spend any time worrying about motivating this bunch as it heads into the back half of the conference season with six of nine games on the road. The matter-of-fact manner in which it eliminated any serious threat from Portland portends a no-letdown conclusion to what has so far been a seamless journey. With 19 assists on 35 made baskets against Portland, with four players in double figures and one (Hermanson) just outside that mark with 9, with Naar sinking 7-10 shots to shadow Pineau’s 10-11 effort, the team is hitting on all cylinders.

Evan Fitzner, who looked early on as if he could become the Gaels’ top scorer, followed an exquisite 20-point effort against Gonzaga with 13 against Portland on 5-6 shooting, including 3-4 three-point attempts. Bennett seems to be waging a psychological battle with Fitzner, trying to ensure that the youngster remains both confident and motivated.

Bennett allowed Fitzner only 19 minutes against Portland even though it seemed he could score at will and was dialed-in on defense. That followed a nerve-wracking (to me, at least) spell on the bench for Fitzner in the second half against Gonzaga. Bennett surely understands the potential of Fitzner to become one of the Gaels’ all-time leading scorers, yet he sees something in the gangly 6-10 redshirt freshman that calls for caution.

I’m content with Bennett’s reading of Fitzner’s psyche, given his track record with hundreds of Gael athletes ranging in temperament from level-headed (Dellavedova) to mercurial (Tron Smith), and everything in between.

Opponents’ road ahead

There is only one surprise at the WCC season’s half-way point, and that is Pepperdine’s usurpation of BYU’s assumed top-three position. By stopping the boys from Provo on Saturday in Malibu by 71-65, Pepperdine vaulted into third place behind Gonzaga’s 7-2 record at 6-3. BYU, which has played one fewer game than the conference leaders, is at 5-3.

The Gaels, who have yet to play BYU in Provo or Gonzaga in Spokane, certainly have a challenging February ahead of them, but their opponents have some things to worry about also. Gonzaga, which has been shaky at best on the road in the WCC — squeaking by Santa Clara and San Francisco, losing to the Gaels and stumbling to a 10-point win over Pacific last Saturday after leading by one at the half — must still face Pepperdine in Malibu and BYU in Provo.

BYU has the most comforting second half, with mostly home games. The Cougars have an opportunity to two-time Gonzaga, whom they beat earlier in Spokane, and gain revenge against Saint Mary’s and Pepperdine, both of whom beat them in the first half. Pepperdine has a chance to upset Gonzaga in Malibu, but must face Saint Mary’s and BYU on the road.

As far as the Gaels have come this season, they still have a long way to go before the WCC tournament opens on March 4 in Las Vegas.

As head coach Randy Bennett makes some points with his players, his assistant coaches remain riveted to the game in progress. From right going down the bench: Marty Clarke, David Carter, Danny Yoshikawa, partially obscured, leaning back, and Marcus Schroeder. Photo courtesy of Tod Fierner.

The Gaels were dead.

After a woeful first half in which they made just 10 of 26 shots, they began the second half with more offensive flow. But so did Gonzaga, and at the 13:17 mark the Zags had increased their eight-point half-time lead to 15 and led 50-35.

Domantas Sabonis, the Zags 6-11 center, was having his way, scoring almost at will on a variety of short jumpers and baby hooks. The Gaels’ vaunted two-man post tandem of Jock Landale and Dane Pineau was ineffective, almost invisible. There was simply no way to avoid a ninth-straight loss to the indomitable Zags.

Then the Gaels found a way, and launched one of the most incredible comebacks in school history to pull out a 70-67 win. A standing-room-only crowd of 4,000 berserk fans shook McKeon Pavilion to its foundation, creating a cauldron of noise in the final minutes that can only be appreciated by someone who has experienced it. It is a whiteout of noise, an impenetrable wall of sound that makes communicating to the person next to you impossible.

The comeback rolled out in two phases, first on a six-minute semi-blitz that reduced the Zags’ lead from 15 to seven, 58-51, with 7:18 left in the game. The leader, unaccountably, was Pineau, suddenly coming alive in the paint with two big buckets. He first scored on a left-hand lay-up against the hulking Sabonis, then went over his right shoulder again against Ryan Edwards, the Zags’ 7-1 back-up center.

Rahon strikes

Joe Rahon continued his harassing attack on Sabonis, making one of his three steals and finding Emmett Naar up-court. Naar got lost in the defensive scramble caused by the steal and slipped in for a lay-up. Then came two sequences that defined the Gaels’ resolute determination not to lose. After Kyle Wiltjer, the Zags’ leading scorer and one of the dominating offensive players in the country, made a short jumper at the 8:25 mark — his last points of the game (6) — Calvin Hermanson answered for the Gaels with a gritty three-pointer from the top of the key.

The Zags’ Kyle Dranginis, having a career night (13 points) along with Eric McCllelan (23 points), paid Hermanson back with a driving lay-up, but Naar gave the edge back to Saint Mary’s with another three-pointer. That brought the game to 58-51, and both sides caught their breath for the final push.

The Zags struck first, going back up by 10 on a Dranginis three-pointer, but the Gaels dug in on defense and started getting stops. The first of seven stops in the final minutes came thanks to McClellan, who lost his dribble to Naar. What seemed like a golden opportunity to rattle the Zags came to naught, however, when Kyle Clark missed a driving lay-up off the Naar steal.  Never mind, as Clark caused a shot clock violation on the Zags’ next possession by deflecting a pass to Dranginis. Pineau cashed that one in with a right-hand lay-up over Wiltjer, moving the score to 61-55.

Then Josh Perkins, the Zags’ embattled point guard, tossed a pass into the back court for another unforced turnover, setting the stage for one of the defining plays of the crucial last minutes. Evan Fitzner, the Gaels’ redshirt freshman who gets partial credit for the clamp-down on Wiltjer (Clark gets the rest), beat Sabonis off the dribble and crashed into the paint. He was grabbed by McClellan but brushed that off and finished with a difficult runner. He sank the ensuing free throw to move the Gaels within three, 61-58, with 4:47 left.

Rahon again

McClellan, a defensive specialist not known for his scoring, gave the Zags life by sinking a dagger three-pointer on the next possession, giving his team a six-point cushion. Then came a sequence of Rahon brilliance that will rival Gael moments of glory such as Patty Mills’ three-pointer at the buzzer to beat Santa Clara and Matthew Dellavedova’s half-court heave to bring down BYU.

Rahon immediately answered McClellan’s three-pointer with one of his own, to get the deficit back to three. He then stole the ball from Sabonis’ hands once again, leading to a lay-up by Fitzner that cut the score to 64-63. After defending Perkins on a drive, Rahon snagged the rebound and headed up-court. He then took Perkins into the lane and gave the Gaels a 65-64 lead with 2:42 left. McKeon rocked as it has seldom rocked before.

From then on it was all defense, as the Gaels recorded consecutive stops. The second was another instant classic, as Clark stepped into the lane to meet a driving Wiltjer, who got by Fitzner for one of the few times in the game. Clark took a Wiltjer elbow to the forehead, but was rewarded with a charging call on the Zag ace and a nasty scrape that had to be tended to on the sidelines.

The icing came on two plays by Fitzner, whose brilliance should guarantee he doesn’t endure any more benchings like the five-minute stretch he suffered at the beginning of the Gaels’ final push. He is simply too valuable to be sitting in crunch time. Following Clark’s stop on the charge by Wiltjer, Fitzner shook off Sabonis and Naar found him for a lay-up that moved the Gaels ahead 67-64 with 1:22 left.

That final 1:22 won’t go into the Gaels’ time capsule, but offsetting blunders gave Saint Mary’s the win. After Sabonis cut the led to two on a play that fouled out the heroic Pineau, Dranginis scored on a driving lay-up to tie it at 67-all. Rahon calmly dribbled up-court with 20 seconds left, picked up Sabonis on a switch and drove the big man. Zag fans will complain for eons that the resulting foul call on Sabonis was a cheapie, and, indeed, contact was slight. But a foul was called nevertheless.

Gael fans had an immediate flashback to Rahon’s misstep against Cal earlier this year, when he went to the line for a one-and-one opportunity with his team trailing by two. He clanked the front end of that one, but against the Zags he had a guaranteed two attempts because the Gaels were in a bonus situation. Rahon seemed to exorcise the ghosts of Cal by sinking his first free throw to move the Gaels ahead 68-67, but missed the second and the Zags rebounded with a little more than six seconds left.

Then came a boneheaded play for the ages, as Rahon — hearing a call from the Gaels’ bench to foul McClellan as he headed up-court — did so emphatically. That would have been good strategy if the Gaels had a foul to give, but they didn’t. McClellan was awarded a one-and-one opportunity that could have put the Zags in the lead with about three seconds left, but he clanked the front end and Fitzner sank two free throws after being fouled on the rebound. Rahon looked toward the heavens in recognition of the blessing he had received.

For on that night at least, God was a Gael for sure.

Evan Fitzner, shown above in an earlier game against UC Irvine, led the Gaels with 20 points. Photo courtesy of Tod Fierner.