No upset here! No. 5 St. Mary's pulls away in second half to defeat No. 12 VCU
St. Mary's Mitchell Saxen looks to pass against VCU's David Shriver in the second half of an NCAA Tournament first-round game Friday in Albany, N.Y. Credit: AP/John Minchillo
ALBANY — You can just about bank on it in every NCAA Tournament: there will be a No. 12 seed that takes out a No. 5 in the first round. Since the field first expanded to 64 in 1986, there have been 53 such upsets. But Saint Mary’s wasn’t about to become No. 54 on Friday.
VCU may have been able to ride its ‘havoc’ defense to an Atlantic 10 championship last weekend in Brooklyn, but it was the Gaels who turned in a little defense of their own to avoid an upset and emerge with a 63-51 victory over the Rams in a West Region first round game at MVP Arena.
No. 5 Saint Mary’s (27-7) will play No. 4 UConn on Sunday for a spot in the Sweet 16.
“It was a gritty game and we just kind of outlasted them a little bit. We got a little separation and were able to hang on,” St. Mary's coach Randy Bennett said.
Mitchell Saxen (17 points) carved up VCU in a number of ways. The 6-10 center scored by rolling to the basket and putting back offensive rebounds, but also hit cutters from his spot in the lane for backdoor layups. He shot 8-for-11, and had seven rebounds, four blocks and four assists.
Saxen helped the Gaels overcome a scoreless performance by foul-addled Aidan Mahaney, their second-leading scorer.
Alex Ducas played 40 minutes and had 17 points, eight rebounds and five steals for Saint Mary’s. Augustus Marciulionis — the son of NBA Hall of Famer Sarunas Marciulionis — added 13 points and Logan Johnson had 12 points.
Adrian Baldwin Jr. led VCU with 13 points but wasn’t on the floor in a critical stretch after landing awkwardly on a jump shot with 14:16 remaining.
At that moment Saint Mary’s led 38-34, but it would go off on a 12-5 run to break things open. Baldwin did return, but for only a portion of the final 8:06, when the Rams went 1-for-9 shooting with three turnovers and six made free throws.
“The whole second half, our message to each other was keep plugging, keep running our offense, and they're going to break,” Saxen said. “That [Baldwin’s injury] might have been the tipping point that broke the dam, but I think it's a testament to our persistence and just trusting each other that we were able to just keep plugging until the water broke.”
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.
