SAN FRANCISCO  – USF came into its game against Saint Mary's riding a three-game winning streak and feeling pretty good about itself after a pair of road wins last weekend in Southern California.
 
However, the Dons failed to pass the litmus test provided by the second place Gaels, as USF dropped an 84-53 decision to its longtime nemesis before a crowd of 2,081 inside Memorial Gymnasium.
 
The game started bad and only got worse for the Dons, who never led in the game and fall to 12-17 overall and 6-11 in WCC play with one regular season game remaining Saturday night against Pacific.
 
The Dons remain tied with Santa Clara for seventh place in the WCC standings after the Broncos fell to Pacific on Thursday at the Leavey Center.
 
Saint Mary's (21-7, 13-4 WCC) made 11 of 17 three-pointers and shot 64 percent from the field in the first half to take a 49-29 lead into the locker room at the break.
 
Any hopes the Dons had of climbing back into the game with an early second half rush were quickly snuffed by the Gaels, who outscored USF11-4 after halftime to open a 60-33 lead with 16:05 remaining.
 
Saint Mary's built a 30-point lead at 83-53 with 4:41 left. The two teams managed to score just one point over the last four and a half minutes of the game as the Gaels left Memorial Gymnasium with an 84-53 victory, completing the season sweep of the Dons.
 
Saint Mary's is now 19-1 vs. USF since the 2005-06 season and have won 23 out of the last 25 games in the series.
 
"It was a disappointing effort to say the least," said head coach Rex Walters. "I never got the sense with our effort there was great belief.
 
"It was one of those games that I felt they were just picking on us."
 
Tim Derksen was the only USF player to score in double figures, as the junior finished with 12 points on 4-of-7 shooting from the floor. Devin Watson scored seven of his nine points from the free throw line while USF's two leading scorers, Kruize Pinkins and Mark Tollefsen, were held to eight points. Pinkins pulled down a game-high 10 rebounds.
 
Garrett Jackson made 10-of-13 shots from the floor, including four of five three-pointers, and scored a game-high 26 points for Saint Mary's. After scoring just six points in the first half, Gaels' big man Brad Waldow finished with 18, as did Kerry Carter.
 
"I thought we did a good job on (Brad) Waldow in the first half, but we didn't expect Garrett Jackson to go 10-of-13 from the field and 4-of-5 from three-point range. He had a major impact on the game. We didn't make a good enough adjustment to get to him."
 
The Gaels shot 58.8 percent from the field for the evening, compared to USF, which shot just 34.6 percent. Saint Mary's made 14-of-27 three-pointers, with Carter and Jackson accounting for more than half of the total.
 
USF will return to action Saturday night against the Pacific Tigers. Tip-off is set for 7:00 p.m. in Memorial Gymnasium. The game will be televised on CSNCA.