Saint Mary's looks to work out kinks vs. South Carolina St. (Dec 22, 2016)
The start of West Coast Conference play is fast approaching, and 19th-ranked Saint Mary's has a few things it needs to clean up.
The Gaels (9-1) will begin the fine-tuning on Thursday in its home game against improving South Carolina State (3-8).
"We want to take better care of the ball," Gaels coach Randy Bennett said, "and we've got to get more aggressive at home. League (play) is right around the corner."
Thursday's contest is Saint Mary's final nonconference game, and the Gaels open WCC play Dec. 29 at Loyola Marymount.
Bennett would like a better performance from his offense overall. The Gaels' three-point percentage (38.6) is not bad, but it's worse than the 40.6 percent they shot last season with the same personnel. The 10.3 turnovers per game are acceptable, but not as good as last season's 9.6 total.
And there are times when the Gaels' offense does not look as smooth as it did last season.
"I don't know why we're struggling offensively, because we're a good offensive team," Bennett said. "I don't know, is the answer."
The Gaels will try to work things out against South Carolina State, a Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference team.
The Bulldogs have only one win against a Division I team, but that was a 69-67 road victory over a pretty good Furman team in their most recent game Friday. Greg Mortimore hit the game-winning shot with four seconds left.
"I am so proud of the way this team held their composure when things got rough down the stretch," South Carolina State head coach Murray Garvin said. "We will enjoy this win for 24 hours and turn our focus to our next opponent."
The next opponent, of course, is Saint Mary's, the latest in a series of difficult foes for the Bulldogs.
They have faced Wichita State, South Carolina, Syracuse, Miami, Texas A&M and Clemson, all on the road. Of those six games, the only one that was not a blowout loss was the 83-76 loss to Texas A&M on Dec. 10.
"I'm proud of the fight," Gavin said after that game. "Coming from where we've come from this season, there's definite growth, that's something we can build off of."
The Bulldogs' two best games both came within the past two weeks, and that's partly because senior guard Eric "E.J." Eaves has been productive lately.
He is scoring 15.1 points per game for the season, but is averaging 20.0 points over the past three contests (Texas A&M, Clemson, Furman). He hit 61.5 percent of shots in that span, including 6 of 11 3-pointers.
However, the Bulldogs are averaging just 64.2 points and 40.6 percent shooting as a team, and they will have trouble offensively against a Saint Mary's team that limits opponents to 58.5 points per game.
Bennett seems pretty satisfied with his defense. It's the offense that needs some work.
"Turnovers, got to get better at that," Gaels guard Joe Rahon said after Saint Mary's committed nine first-half turnovers in Tuesday's 67-46 victory over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. "Have to sharpen up before Christmas."
Rahon and backcourt partner Emmett Naar combined for 15 assists against four turnovers against Corpus-Christi. The team's top scorer continues to be center Jock Lansdale, who is averaging 17.7 points and 9.3 rebounds.
