In what may go down as the greatest season in the history of the Saint Martin’s men’s basketball program, the Saints’ run came to an end in the NCAA West Regional semifinals against Point Loma 66-57 Saturday night in Hayward, California.
One night after completing a 14-point comeback in the NCAA Division II Tournament first round against Hawaii Pacific, the Saints fell behind early to the Sea Lions and could never gain a lead in the wire-to-wire loss.
Eleven seconds into the contest, Point Loma’s Tyce Paulsen drained a 3-pointer, and the Sea Lions knocked down two more triples in the first three minutes to take an early seven-point lead. Kaden Hansen drilled a shot from downtown of his own to cut the lead to four with 15:08 on the clock, but Point Loma used a 10-0 run to jump in front by 13 midway through the first half, a margin it maintained at halftime.
Saint Martin’s shot just 7 of 22 from the field in the first half and 1 of 6 from 3-point range.
Often this season, the Saints have dipped into a pot of magic when faced with double-digit deficits, most notably on Friday against Hawaii Pacific. It appeared for the first few minutes of the second half that Saint Martin’s still had some of that magic left in the pot, scoring the first six points of the half.
The Saints brought it to within three with 8:13 remaining as Pablo Navarro hit a clutch triple. But, unlike Friday’s game, they could never string together clutch shots along with clutch stops on defense. A 50-47 game with 5:42 to go turned into a 61-47 game in favor of Point Loma with 2:50 left thanks to an 11-0 run, and the Sea Lions held off the Saints from making any further rallies.
Navarro was the only player for Saint Martin’s with more than eight points, putting up 20 points and 10 rebounds. Anthony Simo and Diego Trejo-Delgado each scored eight, and Hansen added seven.
Saint Martin’s finishes the season with a 26-6 record in a campaign that saw the team win its first GNAC Tournament championship in program history.
