Scorer and playmaker: Point guard Joshua Dent added 21 points against Davidson and only missed once from the field. / Photo by Jonathan Lesane
Gaels Outlast Davidson Wildcats in Gritty, Physical Contest
In a game that featured eight ties and 20 lead changes, Saint Mary’s emerged victorious 70–61. Joshua Dent led scoring with 21 points, and Andrew McKeever scored 15 while bringing down 13 rebounds.
A little over a week after their trip to the Bahamas, on Sunday the Saint Mary’s Gaels (9–1) found themselves back in the Eastern Time Zone, this time in North Carolina for their first true road contest of the year against a red hot Davidson team (7–2). The Wildcats fought the Gaels tooth and nail, in a contest that featured eight ties and 20 lead changes, and saw Saint Mary’s score a season-low 70 points. But the SMC defense and rebounding made the difference, and when the dust settled, victory belonged to the Gaels, 70–61.
Joshua Dent led the offense both as a scorer and playmaker, with 21 points and five assists. It’s his second career 20+ point contest, and his first that also featured five or more assists. Andrew McKeever was a force on the interior with 15 points and 13 boards for his third double-double. Mikey Lewis rounded out the double-digit scoring with 11 points, adding nine of those over the final 10 minutes of the contest.
Saint Mary's finished +18 on the glass, with McKeever going for 13 boards, Dillan Shaw ripping down 10, Harry Wessels chipping in seven, and Paulius Murauskas going for six. It was a cold shooting day from beyond the arc, but the Gaels made up for it by scoring 44 in the paint, helping them to their seventh contest shooting 45% or better from the field this season.
Back and Forth
The first half was as tight as they come, with neither side ever leading by more than one possession. The Wildcats held onto a narrow 23–20 lead with 5:18 to go, when Joshua Dent buried the first Saint Mary's triple of the half to level things off. The defense came to life on both sides, but a Rory Hawke layup pushed the Gaels ahead 25–23 at the 2:34 mark. They would not relinquish the lead for the remainder of the half, taking a 27–24 lead into the break.
Dent accounted for a third of all of the Gaels points in the first frame, missing just once from the field (4–5) and accounting for both of the SMC assists in the half. Andrew McKeever added eight points and had an astonishing 10 first half rebounds, his second double-digit rebounding half of the year. McKeever's effort on the glass led the Gaels to a +10 rebounding advantage at the break, while his effort in the paint helped the Gaels to +12 interior scoring advantage.
Back and Forth, Part Two
An Andrew McKeever skyhook on the opening possession of the second half gave the Gaels their first multi-possession lead of the game, and individually gave him his third career double-double. Davidson responded with an 11–2 run to reclaim the lead, but the Belk Center was quieted by a Dillan Shaw triple that cut the deficit to one. The lead seesawed back and forth, with the score knotted up at 51 all, Mikey Lewis and Harry Wessels generated a 7–0 Gaels run, bringing the score to 58–51 with 5:48 to play.
Davidson would shave the deficit to as close as four down the stretch, but the Gaels defense continued to make life tough for the Wildcats, never letting them get into an offensive groove in their comeback effort. When the clock hit zeroes, the scoreboard sat at 70–61, with the Gaels closing out the game on a 5–0 run.
If Joshua Dent's first half was great, his second half was perfect: He scored 12 on a flawless 4–4 from the field and 4–4 from the stripe. He also added three assists and didn’t leave the floor in the second half. Mikey Lewis added nine in the second frame, after being limited to two in the first, while Andrew McKeever went a perfect 3–3 from the field to add seven in the second stanza. The Gaels shot 53.3% from the field as a team in the second half, after shooting sub-40% in half one; attacking the paint, they 26 scored in the key.
The Unusual Suspects
Heading into this contest, Andrew McKeever and Joshua Dent had been identified as solid secondary scorers for the Gaels. But on Sunday they were offensive leaders 1 and 1A. Dent led the charge with 21 points, missing just once from the field. The eight made field goals were a career-high, as was the 89% field goal clip. Dent also added five assists, the only Gael with an assist.
McKeever finished with 15 points and 13 boards for his third career double-double. Like Dent, McKeever was efficient offensively, scoring on six of nine field goal attempts. Those two combined for 36 points—more than half of the Gaels’ scoring—after averaging a combined 20.3 per game entering Sunday’s match.
Doing the Dirty Work
The Gaels’ size really made life difficult for the Davidson Wildcats. Saint Mary's dominated on the boards, scored well in the paint, and limited paint scoring opportunities defensively. The Gaels finished with a +18 rebounding advantage, a +8 offensive rebounding advantage, a +18 paint scoring advantage, and a +8 second chance scoring advantage.
Andrew McKeever led this front, with 13 boards, including seven offensive, and 12 points scored in the paint. Dillan Shaw added a career-high 10 rebounds, while Harry Wessels went for seven boards (six offensive) and eight points, all in the paint. While the three point shot had been falling throughout most of the season for the Gaels this year, this was the gritty physical brand of basketball that Saint Mary’s has been known for for the past two decades.
Up Next: Gaels vs. Boise State
The Gaels play their fifth game away from home on December 14, when they head to Idaho Falls and the Mountain America Center to take on Boise State for the third straight year. Tipoff is set for 4 p.m. Mountain / 3 p.m. Pacific.
