Redhawks Unravel in Second Half, Suffer 93-76 Loss to Gaels
MORAGA, Calif. - After 20 minutes, the Seattle Redhawks led the 14-2 Saint Mary’s by five points on their home floor, again looking poised to pull off a WCC upset. But in similar fashion to Friday’s overtime loss to Gonzaga, Chris Victor’s team fell apart in the second half and walked off on the wrong end of a 93-76 defeat.
There is a positive that be taken away from the Redhawks controlling a majority of both games on the road against the top two teams in the WCC in back-to-back games. However, whether Victor subscribes to moral victories or not, it will not reconcile how the final 20 minutes unraveled in the McKeon Pavilion on Sunday.
In the first half, the Redhawks played their game and dictated the pace. They attacked the rim, which opened up outside shooting opportunities. Junseok Yeo nailed two triples in the first half and finished the game with a career-high 24 points on eight three pointers made. Will Heimbrodt attacked the basket all night and finished with 19 points five rebounds and five blocks. Even Maleek Arington, who has not been known for his scoring, added 12 points, six rebounds, and two assists as part of a balanced effort.
On the defensive end, the Redhawks didn’t have much of an answer for Paulius Murauskas, but at least early on, the Gaels were not able to fully capitalize off the space he created for the rest of the offense as the visitors went into the locker room with the surprising lead.
As the game went on though, in similar fashion to Friday, Seattle’s shooting cooled off and Saint Mary’s began to control in the paint, opening things up for the rest of the offense. The Gaels rank second in rebounding margin in the WCC and through 20 minutes, the two teams were neck and neck on the boards. But in the second half, Saint Mary’s outrebounded Seattle 31-7, leading to 17 second half points that helped spur the surge.
The 6-8 Murauskas dominated the Redhawks all night, scoring 30 points and grabbing 15 rebounds with an impressive double double effort. He proved to be a matchup nightmare for Seattle, posting up on everyone smaller than him and blowing by the big men off the dribble. Along with Murauskas, Harry Wessels dominated the paint as well, posting 15 points and seven rebounds with the Gaels’ size and skill being too much to overcome.
While Seattle outpaced Saint Mary’s for a good portion of the game, eventually the extra possessions became too much to overcome and the Gaels began to run away with the contest. The Redhawks were outscored 54-32 in the second half, including a 13-2 run by the Gaels to close out the game.
Despite suffering their worst statistical loss of the season, playing at Gonzaga on Friday and at Saint Mary’s tonight is as hard of a sequence of games as there is in the WCC. The Redhawks will look to bounce back when they return to action on Thursday against Oregon State before getting a week off and hosting San Diego.
