In a second half crawl back victory the Gaels become the second team ever to beat BYU two years in a row at the Marriott Center. In a down to the wire finish, SMCs Matthew Dellavedova threw up a 35 foot off balance three pointer with .9 seconds remaining hitting nothing but net to win the game 70-69 stunning the Cougars.

The Gaels had another tough first half at BYU. The Gaels started cold against the Cougars in their first of a two game road trip. In the first eight minutes BYU went on an almost unstoppable 17-2 run and led the Gaels 20-4. Matt Carino opened on fire for the Cougars with a quick 3-3 and finished the first half going 5-6 with 12 points.

The Gaels struggled in the beginning against BYU’s match-up zone Deference. Late in the half the Gaels made some offense adjustments and went on a 12-4 run closing the score to 30-23 with 3:53 in the half. The Gaels headed to the locker room down 34-27 cutting a once 17 point BYU lead to 7.

First half statistics for the Gaels were not impressive. They shot just 11-31 (35.4%) from the floor. Matthew Dellavedova was held to 1-5, Mitchell Young and James walker both went 3-6, and the leading scorer was Steven Holt going 4-8 with 10 points. From three point land the Gaels went just 3-14 (21.4%).

In the first half BYU shot 15-28 (53.6%) from the floor. Brandon Davies went 4-8 and had 8 points.

The second half again was something different. The Gaels started the second half with a quick 4-0 run. With 16:16 left in the game, the Gaels cut the BYU lead to 36-34. At 15:12 remaining, the Gaels took their first lead of the night 41-38 on Steven Holt’s back to back three point shots. The Gaels were able to go up by as many as six in the second half, but BYU stayed strong. The lead changed hands eight different times until 1:50 remaining in the game when Dellavedova was fouled. Dellavedova went 1-2 from the line to tie the score 67-67. The score remained 67-67 until 34.6 seconds in the game. BYU’s Haws scored two with 2.4 seconds taking the lead again for BYU 69-67. The Gaels had one last possession. SMC went the length of the court for a last second Dellavedova game winning three pointer.

For the game the Gaels went 25-60 (41.6%) from the floor. Holt led the charge going 8-16 with 22 points. Dellavedova went 6-16 and had 18 points.

BYU shot 27-51 (52.9%) from the floor. Haws went 8-16 for 23 points and Carino went 6-12 for 16 points.

The Gaels move to 3-1 in the WCC. BYU loses their first conference game and drops to 4-1 in the WCC. Coach Rose of BYU is denied his 200th win.

The Gaels travel to Portland on Friday 1/18/2013 for another tough road game.