Saint Mary’s unable to upset No. 2 Alabama for Sweet 16 spot, 80-66

Saint Mary’s shot at the Sweet 16 went amiss Sunday, 15 years after reaching that NCAA Tournament stage for the only time in program history.

No. 2-seed Alabama ended the cold-shooting Gaels’ season, 80-66, in a second-round game at Cleveland’s Rocket Arena.

No. 7-seed Saint Mary’s (29-6) struggled offensively from the outset, and a 42-29 halftime deficit forced the Gaels to try repeating Friday’s first-round comeback, in which they trailed by 12 before outlasting Vanderbilt 59-56.

A year after reaching its first Final Four, Alabama (27-8) advanced to Thursday’s East Region semifinals in Newark, N.J. against No. 6 seed BYU, which knocked off No. 3 Wisconsin 91-89 Saturday.

“Great year. A really good team, one of our best since I’ve been there,” Randy Bennett, Saint Mary’s 24th-year coach, told reporters postgame. “They had a few goals up there and kept checking the boxes. It was a special team. I have nothing but positive feelings.

“Obviously you don’t like to lose and we didn’t play good enough to win,” Bennett added. “I will miss coaching these guys. That’s the one negative.”

Saint Mary’s exited with a second-round defeat for the third time in four years, having been upset in last year’s first round as a No. 5 seed. The Gaels have lost five straight appearances in the second round since their 2010 run to the Sweet 16.

Saint Mary’s made a season-low 34.3% of their field-goal attempts, and just 25% in the first half en route to a 13-point deficit at the break. The Gaels missed their first nine 3-point attempts — a habit that plagued their final four games — and exited 3-of-14 from beyond the arc.

“We can get back here. We have enough pieces where if we can them to follow the lead of these three seniors, we can get back here again,” Bennett said. “Who knows, we could be better next year, maybe.”

Even after Augustas Marciulionis and Paulius Murauskas made back-to-back 3-pointers, a 10-point deficit remained with 7 minutes left in their season. Marciulionis finished with nine points and was 3-of-11 from the floor, symbolic of the Gaels’ overall shooting struggles.

Saint Mary’s repeatedly pulled within single digits in the second half, but Alabama answered every time. Six Alabama players scored in double figures and the Crimson Tide made 51.8% of its field-goal attempts while hitting 7-of-17 3-point tries.

Mitchell Saxen led Saint Mary’s with 15 points in his program-record 156th and final game. Fellow big man Harry Wessels had 12 points, while the Gaels’ other points came from Jordan Ross (eight; 4-of-15 shooting), Murauskas (seven; 2-of-7), Lewis (seven; 3-of-8) and Luke Barrett (six; 2-of-7).

“We kept fighting. I’m really proud we kept trying to get back in this game,” Marciulionis said. “Against a team like Alabama, you have to play 40 minutes, not 20 to get this done.”

Bennett heralded the standard set by the exiting trio of Marciulionis, Barrett and Saxen, the latter of whom said: “I hope the undergrads were taking notes.”

Saint Mary’s entered the tournament with the NCAA’s best rebounding margin (plus-10.8 per game), but Alabama owned the boards this game 41-36, with the Gaels corraling 15 offensive rebounds in a game offering many more.

Mikey Lewis’ corner 3-pointer trimmed Alabama’s lead to 76-66 with 86 seconds remaining, but it was the Gaels’ final 3 of the night.

“A lot of people were saying we were about to lose this game,” Alabama forward Grant Nelson said, “so we knew we had to come out and bring energy. The starting group got us going.”

In the first half, the Gaels were 9-of-36 on field-goal attempts and 0-of-6 from 3-point range, no way to start against the nation’s top-scoring team. Almost all of their other 21 first-half misses came in the paint.

Alabama, which entered at an NCAA-best 91.1 points per game, converted over 55% of its first-half field-goal attempts, with Chris Youngblood scoring 13 points in the first half while Sears had just four points. Youngblood finished with 13 points, and Sears had 12.

Saint Mary’s started ice cold from 3-point range for a fourth straight game. Saint Mary’s shot 3-of-35 on first-half 3-point shots through its final four games.

In their previous three games, Saint Mary’s 3-point shooters made 2-of-13 against Pepperdine and 0-of-16 against Gonzaga in the WCC Tournament, then 7-of-25 in the NCAA opener against Vanderbilt despite a 2-of-18 start.

The Gaels led this finale for all of 30 seconds, with two leads quickly evaporating in the opening minutes. They had no first-half turnovers as opposed to Alabama’s nine.

“It’s tough to guard us when you have six guys capable of scoring in double digits,” Alabama coach Nate Oats said.

Added Marciulionis: “If we made our shots, made our layups, it would have been a close game at halftime, and then who knows.”

Not enough shots were made, not by the Gaels, at least.

As for Saint Mary’s future, Bennett said: “I like our guys. The future is a little more unstable nowadays because of the dynamics of college basketball. But we have some good young guys.

“Mikey and Jordan Ross are going to be good players, Paulus is a good player and only a sophomore, and Harry is a good player, and Ashton (Hardaway) is talented,” Bennett said. “We’re sitting on some guys and some new ones are coming in. Looking forward to putting it together but I can’t wrap my head around it still dealing with the emotions of this team.”