A great night for Gaels and for Jordan Ross (pictured), who dished out a team-high three assists to go along with his five points. / Photo by Tod Fierner for SMC Athletics
Gaels Hold Off Pesky Merrimack Squad, 73-68
The game marks the Gaels’ seventh home game win in a row. The victory was accomplished, in large part, by SMC’s “big three”: Mitchell Saxen, Paulius Murauskas and Augustas Marciulionis.
Back at home for the first time in over two weeks, the Saint Mary's Gaels (10-2) faced steep competition in Merrimack (5-8), a team that won four of their previous five games. But no longer. While the Warriors kept things close, the Gaels led for 38+ minutes in this one, ultimately earning their 10th victory of 2024 and running their home winning streak to seven in a row.
In the first half, the Gaels never trailed the Warriors, although they could never trul pull away from them. Saint Mary’s led by as many as 11 midway through the period, but Merrimack remained tough both offensively and defensively, as Saint Mary's took a 32-26 lead into the halftime break. Paulius Murauskas went for 12 points, seven boards and two steals in the first frame, while Mitchell Saxen added six points, eight rebounds and two blocks.
Jordan Ross had a team-high three assists to accompany his five points. The Gaels outrebounded Merrimack 26-10 and had 10 of their 12 first-half buckets made from assists. In one of the more interesting statlines, both Merrimack's leading scorer, Bud Clark, and Saint Mary's leading scorer Augustas Marciulionis, were held scoreless in the opening frame.
The offense began flowing more for both sides in the second half. The Warriors threw the opening blow, with a 10-4 run to knot things up at 36 all. Bud Clark regained his scoring form with four points during that run. Marciulionis followed suit, regaining the lead for the Gaels at 38-36 and again at 40-38 after Clark again tied things up. Merrimack got level at 40, the final tied score of the game, before Saxen converted on his next two attempts, giving Saint Mary's a lead that they would not relinquish.
The big three
Saint Mary's picked up over 70% of their scoring, over 65% of their rebounding, and nearly half of their assists from the trio of Mitchell Saxen, Paulius Murauskas and Augustas Marciulionis. Saxen led the charge with 18 points and 12 rebounds. After a slow start from the field (3-10), Saxen converted on each of his final three field goal attempts down the stretch when the Gaels needed him most. Saxen also demonstrated once again why he was named last year's defensive player of the year in the WCC, as he recorded a pair of blocks and a pair of steals.
Paulius Murauskas was every bit as stellar as Saxen on both sides of the ball, recording 18 points and 11 rebounds. After a big scoring first half, Murauskas became more of a playmaker in the second half, breaking the Merrimack zone with pristine passing from the high post with four second-half assists, occurring on four consecutive baskets, helping the Gaels go from up 42-40 to up 51-44 in the span of three minutes and change. Like Saxen, Murauskas also shined defensively, tying his career-high with three steals.
Rounding out the group was Gaels leading scorer on the season, Augustas Marciulionis. Despite playing the entire first half without leaving the floor, Marciulionis was held scoreless in the opening frame. That changed about five and a half minutes into the second half, when he hit a layup to break a 36-36 stalemate, and then would hit five of his next six attempts from the field to close out the half and game with 16 points while not leaving the floor. Marciulionis also went for four assists, well below his career-high, but did so without turning the ball over once, after totaling 17 turnovers in the previous four games.
Adjusting on the fly
After struggling to score against Merrimack's zone defense in the first half, the Gaels came out of the halftime break with adjustments that allowed them to improve by leaps and bounds offensively in the second half. After shooting just 38% from the field and 17% from three and turning the ball over seven times in the first half, the Gaels shot a blistering 58% from the field and 67% from three, turning the ball over only four times in the second frame. Things really started to click for the Gaels offensively in the second half as Paulius Murauskas became more and more comfortable as a playmaker in the high post. This allowed Augustas Marciulionis to move more freely through the defense, scouring four of his buckets within 10 feet of the rim.
As the zone defense tightened to try and eliminate paint scoring, there was more space to be found on the perimeter, with Murauskas, Marciulionis, and Luke Barrett all burying at least one three-point attempt in the second half. The ability to hang onto the basketball also went a long way to helping the Gaels hold off the surging Warriors, who improved offensively in the second stanza. Merrimack was limited to just three points off of turnovers in the second half.
Taking what's given
For the second consecutive game, Saint Mary's shot better than 80% from the charity stripe, as Paulius Murauskas, Mitchell Saxenand Augustas Marciulionis each only missed one free throw in eight, seven and three attempts respectively, while Andrew McKeever knocked down his only attempt for a 16-19 (84.2%) clip. This mark surpassed the Gaels previous season best of 81.3%, set just five days ago in Idaho Falls.
The last time the Gaels shot better than 80% in back-to-back contests was to open conference play last year at San Diego (1/4) and LMU (1/6), when they shot 85% (17-20) and 89.5% (17-19) respectively. The Gaels did do it in three consecutive games last season as well, shooting 83.3%, 92.3% and 84.6% against UNLV (12/16), Middle Tennessee (12/19) and Northern Kentucky (12/21) respectively.
UP NEXT: The Gaels will have their final non-conference tilt of the regular season on Sunday, December 22, as they play host to the 10-1 Utah State Aggies. Tip-off is set for 5 p.m. inside UCU Pavilion.
