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HARTFORD, Conn. — When the brackets were released on Selection Sunday, coaches Randy Bennett and Jay Wright knew they were walking into a grind-it-out battle.
Baskets would be hard to come by. Fast-break chances would be limited. High-flying action mostly nonexistent.
Both head coaches’ prophecies were fulfilled Thursday night, with Bennett’s 11th-seeded Saint Mary’s squad unable to pound out enough key shots or come up with timely defensive stops in a 61-57 first-round loss to Wright’s sixth-seeded Villanova, the defending national champions.
“They’re kind of grindy too. That’s how they play,” said Bennett. “I knew it was gonna be that [type of] game because they play that [style], and we play that [style]. It’s not easy for us to score, and we battled that all year. When you play against good teams like Villanova or good teams in our league like Gonzaga, San Francisco, San Diego, those guys, they’re not gonna give you easy shots. They’re gonna make you work for them.”
The Gaels (22-12) own the nation’s fourth-slowest offensive pace in the country, according to basketball stat service KenPom. They used that patient, deliberate offense to burn the shot clock to less than five seconds on most of their first-half possessions, taking a 30-28 lead at halftime by hitting five 3s and coughing it up just twice.
But the Wildcats (26-9) clamped down defensively and stepped on the gas pedal, even if just briefly, for a 10-3 run out of the gate after halftime that proved to be enough to stave off Saint Mary’s in a game that crawled to its end.
“The tempo was excruciating,” said Wright. “It’s much harder to speed up a game than it is to slow down a game. They’re just such a good passing team and so skilled that if we tried to speed it up, it would give them too many open shots, and they’re such a good 3-point shooting team. We thought going in we were gonna have to grind with them. We weren’t gonna be able to change the tempo. We had to be disciplined enough to grind. Wish it didn’t have to be that way, but that’s why they’re so good.”
Wright praised the Gaels’ size, length and defensive discipline after his team advanced to the second round. But it was the Wildcats who used their long bodies and athleticism the best, stifling Gaels leading scorer Jordan Ford (21.3 points per game) to just 13 points — 1 for 7 from 3-point range; 6 for 17 from the floor (35.3 percent). It was the junior’s third-lowest point total this season and his fifth-worst shooting percentage. He had not shot lower than 35.3 percent since Jan. 17, a stretch of 16 games.
“I had a few good looks that I know I can make, but they’re a really long team, which could’ve probably affected me a little bit. But a lot of those shots are shots I know I can make so going forward I just need to get in the gym and keep getting better,” said Ford, whose team cut a 61-53 deficit with a minute left to four with 22 seconds left before a missed 3 by Malik Fitts and a Ford turnover sealed the Gaels’ fate.
Bennett believes it was a huge advantage that Villanova’s veterans, including two-time national champions Phil Booth and Eric Paschall, were used to the pressure of a potential one-and-done game in the NCAA Tournament. He also hopes Booth (game-high 20 points) and Paschall’s (14 points) ability to fill it up is something his players will develop next season, when the Gaels return everyone in their rotation except senior starter Jordan Hunter.
“We’re a pretty young team. We don’t have a ton of scorers yet. I think we’ll have more of those next year,” Bennett said. “We just had to compete and compete for every shot, and we had to compete defensively to keep people from getting easy shots. I think that’s how it gets at the end of the year. I’m glad we’re hard for [Villanova] to play against, and hopefully we’ll be able to score it against them next year.”
