alt=Jeff CallNo. 22 Saint Mary’s ensured that its final appearance at the Marriott Center would be a memorable one.
At least, it was for the Gaels.
And for the second time this month, BYU tantalized Cougar Nation with the potential of a huge upset at home — until the waning moments.
The Cougars have held a late lead against a nationally-ranked opponent twice in recent weeks only to suffer a heartbreaking defeat on a game-winning shot in the final 10 seconds.
Saturday, Saint Mary’s freshman Aidan Mahaney, who was held scoreless in the first half, knocked down a tough, fade-away, game-winning 15-foot jump shot from the right angle with Cougar forward Fousseyni Traore’s hand in his face.
Mahaney’s shot dropped through the hoop with three-tenths of a second remaining to lift the Gaels to a 57-56 victory in front of a crowd of 15,843.
As a result, BYU (14-10, 4-5) lost its third consecutive game while Saint Mary’s (19-4, 8-0) earned its 10th straight victory.
“Obviously, a really tough, disappointing ending to a terrific game against a great team,” said BYU coach Mark Pope. “This Saint Mary’s team is dominating our league right now and they’re playing at an elite level. I thought our guys competed in every way.”
Just before Mahoney’s heroics, BYU freshman Dallin Hall, who poured in a career-high 23 points, made one of two free throws with 10.2 left on the clock, leaving the door open for Saint Mary’s to win on a two-point shot.
It was eerily reminiscent of BYU’s 75-74 setback at the hands of then-No. 8 Gonzaga on Jan. 12, when with 15.9 seconds left, Cougar guard Jaxson Robinson made one of two free throws and the Zags’ Julian Strawther buried a game-winning 3-pointer with 9.5 seconds remaining.
“It’s so painful to think about because we had exactly the same situation with Gonzaga,” Pope said. “But the result was the same, which is just so brutal.”
However, Pope added that his team showed signs of improvement against Saint Mary’s.
“The execution of our guys in terms of being present and mindful and executing what we’re supposed to execute was 1,000-times better,” he said. “That’s what’s tough, man, is when you make a lot of progress and end up with the same result. That’s where you’ve got to keep fighting and push through.
”I felt our guys were fully engaged. The last possession is so haunting from that Gonzaga game because we weren’t even present,” Pope added. “These last four minutes (Saturday), we were fully present. (Saint Mary’s) executed one shot better than we did the last four minutes.”
Against Gonzaga, the Cougars squandered a double-digit second-half lead. Against Saint Mary’s, BYU trailed by eight points, 51-43, with less than six minutes remaining.
At that point, the Cougars scored nine straight, on layups by Hall and Traore, two free throws by Gideon George, and a 3-pointer by Spencer Johnson to give BYU a 52-51 lead at the 3:09 mark.
The Cougars led for only 3:53 of the game, but they put themselves in position to win. With 2:17 left, Johnson drilled another 3-pointer to put the Cougars up 55-53.
The Gaels’ Logan Johnson responded with a jumper to tie the game at 55-apiece. The score remained that way until 10.2 seconds left, when Hall, who has scored two game-winners already this season, drove to the hoop and drew a foul.
Hall went 1 of 2 from the line (he was 3 of 6 for the game). From the floor, he hit 9 of 14 from the floor, including 2 of 5 from 3-point range to go along with four rebounds and two assists in 35 minutes of action.
Just a week earlier, in BYU’s loss at San Francisco, Hall went scoreless, committing five turnovers in 11 minutes of action. But this week, he was determined to show a different side of himself.
“Dallin did not have a great week last week in the Bay Area. He is just championship-inside pedigree in the way he came to practice on Monday,” Pope said. “He had some fire in his eyes and he just refused to let that be him. That manifested itself in a lot of positive ways tonight. His resolve and his commitment and his obsession with getting better is pretty spectacular. He’s carrying a lot on his shoulders. He certainly was great tonight. His insides was what was really special tonight.”
Pope was impressed by Hall’s aggressiveness and skill.
“In terms of execution, I thought the guys did an unbelievable job. Saint Mary’s is No. 2 in the country in not allowing assisted field goals,” he said. “You get into a downhill drive or ball screen offense, and they’re going to gap early and spray out to shooters. They don’t believe in giving up shots. So Dallin took what they gave and he did it in probably a better way than any guard that I’ve had in the four years that I’ve been a coach here. He took advantage of how they force you to play.”
Pope also praised Hall’s defensive effort against Saint Mary’s Alex Ducas, who scored eight points in the early moments of the game but ended up with just 12.
“Dallin was really special. Minus some freshman mistakes, I thought he was really solid defensively,” Pope said. “Ducas got going early and switched Dallin onto him and contained him a little bit. He made a huge impact on the game defensively also.”
But Mahaney, who finished with 10 points, left the Marriott Center with the game-winning shot.
“I just wanted to give us a good look, look for the best shot. It went up and it went in and then the rest is history,” Mahaney told the media after the game. “I think I could have played better tonight but for us to grind out a win. … We highlight gritty as a word for our team, and that’s kind of how I would define what happened.”
Mahaney’s game-winner was also reminiscent of what happened at the Marriott Center 10 years ago. In 2013, noted BYU tormentor Matthew Dellavedova nailed a buzzer-beating 40-footer to sink the Cougars not long after Tyler Haws hit a clutch shot with 2.5 seconds remaining. That night, the Gaels won 70-69.
Back then, it was what is known as the “Dellavedagger.” Saturday, it was the “Mahaney-machete.”
For BYU, both endings against Saint Mary’s cut like a knife.
In terms of defending Mahaney in the final sequence, Pope said Traore, who scored 11 points and pulled down eight rebounds, did an admirable job.
“I thought Fouss was terrific. He contained penetration and he stayed down. It’s a complicated matchup,” Pope said. “He made Mahaney take a two-feet, off-the-pivot, fallaway two. It’s a great effort. Fouss is super twisted up because he doesn’t want to have a great effort. He wants to have a game-winning effort. I thought the guys were terrific.”
The Cougars played without starter Jaxson Robinson and reserves Atiki Ally Atiki and Noah Waterman, who broke a team rule.
The first half featured big runs by both teams.
BYU led 7-3 a few minutes in before Saint Mary’s scored 14 unanswered points during a span that saw the Cougars go scoreless for 7:48. It appeared that the Gaels, who seized a 17-7 lead, were going to wrap up this one in the first half.
But BYU responded with a 17-5 run to end the half. That included an 11-0 Cougar run that featured Hall scoring nine of those points, including a 3-pointer that tied the game at 19-apiece.
Over the final two minutes, Trey Stewart, Gideon George and Hall scored three consecutive layups to lift BYU to a 25-22 advantage. With 6.1 seconds left in the half, Saint Mary’s Augustas Marciulionis hit three free throws after being fouled on a 3-point attempt to tie the game at 25 at intermission.
The Cougars played the Gaels even in the second half — until Mahaney’s incredible shot determined the outcome.
It marked one last memorable win for Saint Mary’s at the Marriott Center. And another painful loss for BYU.
“We made big plays down the stretch,” Pope said, “and we made a couple of really nice comeback runs and answered the bell in all the ways except for getting a stop in the last 10 seconds.”
BYU hosts Loyola Marymount Thursday.