St. Mary's loses to Utah State 75-65

St. Mary's 75-65 loss to Utah State in a BracketBusters game in Moraga on Saturday night bore a striking resemblance to the Gaels' 74-66 loss in a WCC game at San Diego on Wednesday evening.

Each time, St. Mary's led by 12 late in the first half and then got overwhelmed in the final 20 minutes.

One major difference between the two games: The Toreros hurt St. Mary's from outside, going 6-for-7 from beyond the arc in the second half. The 25th-ranked Aggies did their damage inside. As in,

-- Utah State went 15-for-27 (55.6 percent) from the floor in the second half.

-- Utah State scored 26 second-half points in the paint. The Gaels had four.

-- Utah State had 21 second-half free-throw tries (making 17) and, in the process, three St. Mary's frontcourt players - Rob Jones, Kenton Walker and Mitchell Young - fouled out.

"I thought the biggest factor was defensively we didn't do a good job in the second half at all," St. Mary's coach Randy Bennett said.

The Gaels led by nine at halftime and by eight with 16 minutes left.

That's when the Aggies (25-3) went on a 19-2 run. Forward Tai Wesley's follow of his own miss with a little more than 11 minutes left gave Utah State a 45-43 edge. The Aggies would stay in front the rest of the way.

Wesley and guard Brockeith Pane each scored a game-high 22 points. Wesley also pulled down 11 rebounds.

Mickey McConnell led the Gaels (22-6) with 16 points. Young had a double-double (11 points and 11 boards).

The Gaels lost for the first time in 14 games at McKeon Pavilion this season. Dating to last season, they had won 19 in a row at home.

St. Mary's hosts Gonzaga on Thursday night and Portland on Saturday evening. A win over the Zags would give the Gaels the regular-season conference title.

After the loss to the Aggies, Bennett told his players to look forward.

"One of the main things he said was we have two more games next week," McConnell said, "so we can kind of turn the page."

Before that page gets turned, though, Bennett wants to address the Gaels' second-half problems, which also hurt them in their 85-70 loss at Portland on Jan. 29.

"We have to fix whatever it is that makes us a 40-minute ballclub," Bennett said.

"We have to be more consistent. I think it starts at the defensive end. Be a more consistent team defensively, and then I think that will help us offensively."

Briefly: The Gaels beat Utah State in each of the past two seasons. The two teams meet again in Logan next season. ... Former St. Mary's guard Patty Mills was at McKeon on Saturday night.