Saints Mary's shoots for 18th straight against San Diego (Feb 02, 2018)
Check off San Francisco and make it 17 straight wins for No. 13 Saint Mary's. The streak is the second longest this season and a school record for the Gaels.
It's San Diego's turn as the Toreros get a shot at ending the streak and not being the 18th consecutive victim when the Gaels travel to Jenny Craig Pavilion for a Saturday matchup.
The Toreros put up a valiant fight against Gonzaga on Thursday and had a chance to upset the No. 14 Bulldogs in Spokane, Wash. But a late 6-0 Gonzaga run doomed San Diego (15-8, 6-5 West Coast Conference) in a 69-59 loss.
"There's no moral victories," Toreros head coach Lamont Smith said on the postgame radio broadcast. "We feel we've come a long way in our program. We're not satisfied coming in here losing by 10, being down two points.
"We lost. We've got to get better at those crucial, critical points."
Smith lauded his defense, holding the Bulldogs, who came in averaging 87.4 points a game (fifth best in the nation), to only 69 points. But he lamented getting beat on the boards.
"I thought we did a great job defensively," Smith told the San Diego Union Tribune. "We just had a hard time boxing out.
"We gave them too many second-chance opportunities and it's hard to do that and win on the road."
Smith has very little time to regroup and get his troops ready for Saint Mary's.
"Regardless of what happened (against Gonzaga), we'll be ready to play," he said.
The Gaels haven't had a hard time winning at home or on the road this season.
Saint Mary's (22-2, 11-0) has not lost since falling to Georgia in overtime on Nov. 26. The Gaels are coming off a 79-43 beatdown of their Bay Area neighbor San Francisco as Jock Landale recorded his 15th double-double of the season, scoring 26 points and grabbing 12 rebounds.
In a win against Portland last week, the Pilots double-teamed Landale each time he touched the ball and held the All-America candidate to six points.
Against the Dons, Landale kept the offense moving and made San Francisco pay for the double team.
"Having a big man willing to pass the ball like Jock does just makes the game so much easier for us," said Saint Mary's swingman Tanner Krebs, who scored all 12 of his points in the first half. Krebs connected on 4 of 7 shots from 3-point range as the Gaels took a 38-21 lead into halftime.
The Dons stopped double-teaming Landale in the second half and he made San Francisco pay by scoring 18 second-half points.
"Jock did a good job getting the ball out of double-teams," coach Randy Bennett told sfgate.com. "He's a pretty unselfish player for a guy who scores as many as he does. He doesn't really get hung up on how many he scores."
As far as Bennett is concerned, it doesn't matter how opposing teams try to defend Landale. The supporting cast is ready, willing and able and has proven in the past it can carry the load.
Calvin Hermanson is second on team scoring 11.9 points per game. Emmett Naar is second in the nation in assists at 9.1 per game and is only 19 away from breaking Matthew Dellavadova's school record. Naar also averages 10.8 points a game.
Complementing the Gaels' balanced offense is a defense that gave up a season-low 43 points to the Dons. The Gaels rank 20th in points allowed (64.3 per game).
The Gaels beat the Toreros 70-63 on Jan. 16 with Naar leading the way with 24 points. San Diego made only 21 field goals, but did make 16 of 20 free throws.
