MORAGA, Calif. – In the first meeting between the Dons and the Gaels, Saint Mary's made up a sizeable deficit to win in the final seconds. Thursday in Moraga, the San Francisco women's basketball team closed out the wire-to-wire victory over the Gaels, holding on for the 65-63 win at McKeon Pavilion.

"I think we have to come out and set the tone, and that's who we are," said head coach Jennifer Azzi. "I think we slipped against Pepperdine. I don't think we had the same intensity and I think our players knew it this week at practice. They came out tonight and you could feel their focus. This was much more our team tonight."

For the Dons, the win improves the team's record to 16-12, and 7-10 in West Coast Conference play. The win in Moraga is the first for the Dons since an 80-68 victory on Jan. 24, 2008. The Gaels, however, move to 19-9 (12-5 WCC), as the league tournament seeding picture stays murky for seeds 3, 4, and 5.

USF was paced by Taj Winston's 19 points, including two clutch free throws down the stretch. She also added a game-high five steals and three assists in the victory. Freshman Anna Seilund was firing on cylinders, particularly from long range, as she drained five of her seven 3-point attempts to finish with a new career high of 17 points. Taylor Proctor contributed 14 points, and team-highs of seven rebounds and five assists.

"Anna's shooting tonight was spectacular. When we have a shooter like that on the floor it makes it very hard to double our posts and a lot of people have been trying to double and triple-team Taylor, and it's great that Taylor can now have assists because we've got shooters. Knowing that Anna and Aundrea Gordon can knock down threes, that's huge.

"I thought defensively Taj was great tonight, Taylor had five assists, Audrea was very poised at the point, just overall team. I thought Alicia came in and gave us good minutes, and we needed her physicality in the post. It was just team, team, team. I'm just happy to get out of here with a win, for sure."

Proctor tallied the first four points in the contest after paint touches led to layups in the opening minutes of action. The Dons led 13-10 after Lauren Nicholson's layup with 11:30 to play in the half, but then USF turned on the jets on both sides of the ball.

Winston picked Hannah Kaser's pocket and took it to the rim for the layup on back-to-back possessions, forcing a Saint Mary's timeout with 10:15 on the clock. After four straight makes from the line, the Dons grew the lead to double-digits. Seilund's jumper with 7:56 gave USF its largest lead of the half with the score at 23-10.

The Gaels sliced the lead to four after Devyn Galland's hook shot with 1:05 remaining in the first. USF closed with the final seven points in the half, capped by a 3-pointer from Seilund off the dish from Gordon with mere ticks to play before the breakputting the score at 38-27.

Saint Mary's opened the second half on a 7-2 clip to put the score at 40-34 with 17:35 to play after Carli Rosenthal's three-point play. The Dons bumped the lead back to double-digits after a Seilund steal and assist to Winston made it 52-40 in favor of the visitors.

While the Dons went cold from the floor, hitting just one field goal attempt in the final nine minutes, Saint Mary's began to chip away at the advantage. The Gaels would rally late, making it a one-point game with 1:27 remaining after Stella Beck's layup. Proctor and Winston both drained a pair of free throws from the line in the final minute to help USF maintain the lead.

With 28.7 seconds on the clock, Winston's successful trip to the stripe put the score at 65-62 in favor of the Dons. A missed layup and ensuing missed 3-pointer for the Saint Mary's offense were both followed by offensive rebounds.Then as the clock read  3.3 seconds to play, the Gaels inbounded the ball to Nicholson, who was fouled with 0.3 ticks remaining, afer the referees conferred on the play. Nicholson hit the first attempt from the line to pull Saint Mary's within two, but her second shot missed the mark and the final buzzer sounded as the Dons prevailed. 

"The more our players experience close games like this, the more they're going to continue to grow," Azzi noted. "There is something about the maturity that comes with winning close games and that's something that we haven't really had in the past."

This marks the ninth WCC conference game on the Dons' docket that was decided by 10 points or less, and the fifth that was a one-possession outcome. Prior to tonight, each of those four one-possession games favored USF's opponent. The Dons and Gaels finished with nearly identical shooting percentages, but USF's 19-of-25 effort from the line, coupled by 21 points off 21 Saint Mary's turnovers was enough to secure the victory. 

The Dons close the regular season on the road, facing Pacific Saturday at 2 p.m., in Stockton, Calif.