Saint Mary’s Basketball: Gaels shocked by UT-Arlington

Saint Mary’s basketball was dominated by UT-Arlington in their home gym.

In a stunning Thursday night upset, the University of Texas-Arlington Mavericks defeated the 12th ranked Saint Mary’s Gaels 65-51.

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While it’s surprising that UT-Arlington won at all, what really stands out is how dominant they were. This tweet pretty much sums up my feelings:

A trio of upperclassmen, Jalen Jones, Kevin Hervey and Erick Neal, have led the Mavericks so far this year. While Jones struggled to get anything going on Thursday night, Hervey and Neal both played excellent.

The two combined to shoot 11-for-23 from the field and finished with 28 points.

Although undersized at the four position, Hervey has led the Mavericks in rebounding so far this season, and once again impressed on the boards. He finished with seven rebounds, the most on his team, and did a great job of competing with the much bigger Gaels on the glass.

Hervey was outstanding, but the real MVP was the Mavericks’ junior point guard Neal. Coming into this game, Neal was in the top 40 in the nation in assist rate (36.7, per KenPom) and he was able to control the game’s tempo with his pinpoint passing and superb decision making.

Neal finished with eight assists on Thursday night – the fifth time in 11 games he’s had eight or more helpers – and was the best guard on the floor in a game that featured the likes of Joe Rahon and Emmett Naar.

Speaking of Rahon and Naar, the Gaels’ usually reliable backcourt was unable to get anything going against UT-Arlington. They usually do a great job of keeping the ball moving in one of the most efficient offenses in the country. The Mavericks shut them down on Thursday night.

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UT-Arlington is not exactly a lockdown defensive squad – they give up right around 70 points per game – but they do a great job of defending the three-point line. They hold opponents to 27 percent shooting from beyond the arc (12th in the nation) and their suffocating perimeter defense was on full display against Saint Mary’s.

The Gaels shoot 40 percent from three on the season, but were held to under 30 percent from deep on Thursday night. They shot just 16-of-51 overall and were consistently taking contested shots off the dribble – very uncharacteristic of a Saint Mary’s team.

At the end of the day, this is just one game. It is hard to draw any major conclusions from it for either team. With that being said, this does highlights the Gaels’ biggest issue in their inability to break down defenses off the dribble.

Jock Landale has emerged as their go-to scorer, but he does the majority of his work in the post. They still do not have a player on the perimeter that they feel comfortable isolating in key situations when they need a basket.

Once the postseason comes around, it is tough to maintain the sort of offensive fluidity they rely on. The Gaels are still in prime position to get back to the NCAA Tournament this season, but they will not advance very far if one of their guards doesn’t step up as the sort of reliable offensive option that Landale has been.

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Look for Naar to step into this role at some point this season. He continues to prove his value as a passer, but he still has room to grow as a scorer.