The Saint Mary's Gaels rolled out the welcome wagon for the Brigham Young University Cougars in their WCC opener. BYU joined the conference this season after leaving the Mountain West. The Cougars have been one of the big dogs in the MWC, but they were given a rude welcome by Saint Mary's. The Gaels throttled BYU 98-82, hoping to set the tone for a potential WCC repeat.
Saint Mary's had four players score in double digits, with Rob Jones leading the way with 24 points and Stephen Holt adding 21. The game was fairly close heading into the final nine minutes of the first half, but SMC pulled away at that point. The Gaels closed out the half with a 15-7 run to take a 53-43 lead. SMC used a 13-2 run to open the second half to put the game away. BYU got back within ten at one point, but no closer. Saint Mary's shot 55.4% from the field and 48.0% from three-point range in the dominant effort.
The Gaels travel to Pepperdine Saturday afternoon for their next contest. Pepperdine offers streaming video and SMC's website will provide audio.