Saint Mary’s Smacks LMU at Home
By Josh Horton
Saint Mary’s demolished the Loyola Marymount Lions today by a score of 89 to 61.
Brad Waldow led the Gaels with 27 points and 10 rebounds. Jordan Guisti and Kerry Careter also finished with double-digit points with 15 apiece respectively. Stephen Holt led the Gaels in assists with 7.
Gabe LEvin was a shining light in a relatively dark game for the Lions. He had 17 points and 6 rebounds, both team-highs for the Lions. Anthony Ireland and Evan Payne, the Lions leading scorers, finished with only a combined 27 points off an underwhelming 9 of 27 from the field. The Lions needed these two to have better efforts in order to pull off the upset.
Instant Reaction: From anyway you look at it, Saint Mary’s looked like the dominant team. Rebounding, effort, defense, ball movement and obviously scoring were all in the Gaels favor today. Waldow was very productive, Giusti have the Gaels a spark off the bench and Dane Pineau looked solid in the minutes he received.
For LMU, they just didn’t play their best game. Injuries aside, this LMU team is much more talented than what they showed today.
Player of the Game: Although it would be easy to put Brad Waldow as the player of the game, Jordan Giusti was the player that made Saint Mary’s tick. He played phenomenal defense on whichever LMU guard he was defending, and nailed 4 out of the _53-pointers he attempted. His confidence was what made Saint Mary’s tick today.
Turning Moment: The Gaels 3-point barrage in the early in the first half gave Saint Mary’s its initial big lead over the Lions. It started with James Walker III, who nailed a deep 3 to give the Gaels an eight point lead. Giusti proceeded to then knocked down back-to-back-to-back 3’s, extending Saint Mary’s lead to 17. It was all downhill from there for the Lions, and vice-versa for the Gaels.
What’s Next: Saint Mary’s will travel down to San Diego to take on the Toreros on Thursday. LMU has Thursday off and will return to LA to take on Pepperdine at their house.