St. Mary's Knocks Out Richmond

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- The champions of the West Coast Conference kept their roll going Thursday, as No. 10 seed St. Mary's roared through a dominating second half to beat seventh-seeded Richmond 80-71 in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Fresh off a victory over perennial favorite Gonzaga in the finals of their conference tournament last week, the Gaels used the gargantuan inside presence of 6-foot-11 senior center Omar Samhan to pull away from the Spiders in one of the opening day's rare routs.

The game was actually tied at 36-36 at halftime, and Richmond had reason to feel confident about its chances. Samhan had scored 17 points on 7-of-10 shooting, all basically from right under or right in front of the basket. But he'd only played 14 of 20 minutes because he had three fouls. Surely, if Richmond could get him that fourth foul early in the second half, they'd have a chance to stay in the game.

They did not, however. Samhan's fourth foul didn't come until there were 11 minutes gone in the second half, by which time he'd run his point total to 27, his rebound total to 11 and helped St. Mary's build a puffy lead it would not relinquish even with the big fella on the bench.

"Coach was pretty fired up at me," Samhan said. "So I was trying really hard not to get any fouls in the second half."

When Samhan was out of the game, it was junior guard Mickey McConnell who kept the Gaels' offense going, hitting his three-point shots and showing that St. Mary's wasn't just a one-man show, no matter how big that man might be.

St. Mary's also outrebounded Richmond 40-17 for the game, which is a staggering number but didn't seem to surprise the Gaels.

"Going into the game, we talked about that -- that they don't block out much," Samhan said. "It's hard to win when you lose the rebounding margin by that much. Defense and rebounding wins games."

Key Element
Hate to beat a dead horse here, but it was Samhan. The Spiders had no answer for Samhan when he got the ball down low, and the Gaels had no problem getting it to him there.

Game Ball Goes To
We'll actually give it to McConnell, because we're sick of typing Samhan's name and because the kid was 5 for 9 from the three-point line. His fifth three of the game came with about a minute and a half left after Richmond had cut the lead to nine and begun to think it might be able to get back into it.

Heart Goes Out To
David Gonzalvez, and not just because of the extra "V" in his last name. The Spiders' senior guard had 18 points, five rebounds and three assists, doing everything he could to try and prolong his college career one more round.

What's Next

St. Mary's will face No. 2 seed Villanova on Saturday in a second-round matchup that, based on the way both teams looked Thursday, should have Villanova and its fans plenty worried. Villanova's bigs had a good game against Robert Morris on Thursday, but they're freshmen, and Samhan might be a lot for them to handle.