West Coast Convo
Fansided

Gaels Whip the Lions

By Sam Falcone

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Saint Mary’s guard Kerry Carter shot a resounding 6-8 from three point land as the Gaels defeated the visiting Loyola Marymount Lions by a final score of 68-54 on Thursday.

LMU did a great job of keeping up with the Gaels throughout a majority of the first half, but Saint Mary’s ended with a 13-4 run to take a three point lead going into halftime. From there, it was all Gaels.

Carter led his team with 18 points, with Brad Waldow adding 14 and Aaron Bright contributing 13 to go along with seven assists. The Gaels were receiving contributions from their entire squad, as every Saint Mary’s player to see the court put some points on the scoreboard.

The Lions, on the other hand, were not so fortunate. Evan Payne went 0-5 from the three point line, contributing only six points on a 3-15 shooting effort. Godwin Okonji led the team in scoring with 14 points, while Ayodeji Egbeyemi added 10.

What’s most disappointing, though, is that Evan Payne, despite the horrid shooting performance, was the only bench player to score for LMU. Now, the bench players didn’t receive nearly the amount of playing time as the starting lineup, but regardless, when five players on a team fail to score a single point, it’s not a good night.

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Loyola Marymount was recently showing improvement in their ability to share the ball and create better scoring opportunities. In their win against San Francisco and even in some of their recent losses, their overall play was looking better.

Maybe it’s because of Saint Mary’s tight defense or Kerry Carter’s ridiculous shooting ability, but it seems like the Lions just took a step backwards in terms of looking formidable. Any time you allow a team like Saint Mary’s to shoot 50 percent from the field, your chances of walking away victorious are pretty darn slim.

But, as with any journey, there are going to be bumps along the way. These kinds of hiccups happen, and it certainly won’t be the last one for Loyola Marymount this season. I suppose the only reason it’s being viewed as such a disappointing loss is that the Lions were starting to show serious signs of improvement in their recent conference play. The sudden disappearance of that team effort can be discouraging, but we must keep in mind that this team is under new leadership and is still very young.

The Lions will stay in northern California for a bit longer as they prepare to travel to Stockton to take on the Pacific Tigers, who joins LMU at the bottom of the conference with a 2-8 record.

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