SAN FRANCISCO – While offensively inconsistent at times tonight against visiting Saint Mary's, the University of San Francisco men's basketball team had no choice but to lean on its defense in Thursday's 69-58 loss to Saint Mary's — Todd Golden's first game against mentor Randy Bennett.

That defense, along with a milestone night for Charles Minlend, kept things close against a Gaels team that looks Tournament-bound once again, but that wasn't enough to overcome a season-worst shooting night by the Dons and their second straight sub-par rebounding night.

"This game kind of went a lot differently than I anticipated, to be honest," Golden said. 

Four nights ago, the Dons had erased a 15-point second-half deficit against Harvard to force overtime, but couldn't overcome a 39-25 rebounding deficit.

Saint Mary's (14-2, 1-0 in WCC) came into Thursday averaging 7.87 offensive rebounds per game — 315th in the nation — with an average rebounding margin of +4.3 per game. The Gaels out-rebounded San Francisco 46-31, including 12 offensive rebounds that led to 18 second-chance points. 

"I thought we would be able to hold them off, even with our smaller guys out there," said Golden, who started sixth man Khalil Shabazz in a four-guard lineup to generate early offense. "We just weren't. We as a staff are still trying to figure out our best group."

Over the first seven minutes of the game, San Francisco's small-ball lineup kept Saint Mary's off the boards and methodically executed its offense, forcing the Gaels into defensive fouls and going up by as many as seven. Golden — who played under Bennett from 2004-07 in Moraga — and his team had forced the up-tempo Gaels into a slugfest, and the sell-out crowd surged with every Dons basket.

With 15:20 to go in the first, Minlend — who scored a team-high 15 — became the 38th player in program history to record 1,000 points when he caught a short rebound off a Jordan Ratinho miss and flipped it back in with his left hand. The crowd stood and cheered for the redshirt junior, who accomplished the feat in just 80 games.

"The energy is always great whenever they come to town to play," Minlend said. "I thought we had the momentum in the beginning for sure we got off to a good start, but I just didn't think we carried it over very well."

After starting 10-of-20 from the field, San Francisco (11-5, 0-1) went cold, hitting one of its next 10. The Dons played disjointed once the second unit entered, as they hadn't practiced much with each other. Even when Minlend returned, he admitted, he started forcing shots. 

"We were really able to break them down pretty quick," Golden said. "That first four minutes, they were not able to stay in front of us. Then, as the game wore on a little bit, they were able to guard us a little bit better and we didn't stay within our offense. We kind of broke down and went a little one-on-one."

The Gaels quickly erased the Dons' lead with a 19-4 run fueled by Malik Fitts, who scored 17 points and pulled down 10 rebounds in the first half. Eight of those rebounds came in the final 13 minutes of the half, during a stretch where St. Mary's out-rebounded the Dons 20-9.

While San Francisco struggled from the floor, the Gaels scored 12 second-chance points in the first half to the Dons' two, taking an eight-point lead into the break.

"I think they scored 12 or 15 points off of second chances, so, if we cut that down to six, we're in the game," Minlend said.

That lead swelled to as many as 14 with 11 minutes to go in the game, as St. Mary's silenced the once-raucous crowd. 

Then, just as he's done twice already this season, Shabazz — who had 11 points — sparked a comeback. A Shabazz three from the top of the arc found the bottom of the net. He then turned in one of his game-high four steals and drove the length of the court, kicking to Ratinho for his 232nd career 3-pointer (he's now five away from breaking the all-time program record) to cut the lead to seven, bringing the crowd to its feet with just under six minutes left. 

The Dons were able to seamlessly transition from a full-court press into their half-court defense — no surprise, given Golden's past as a defensive coordinator — and looked disciplined against a St. Mary's offense that would be right at home in the Pac-12. 

Folsom grad Jordan Ford, though, took over, helping the Gaels to five straight points to give them some breathing room as he scored 11 of his 14 points in the second half.

"We can't keep putting ourselves in those kind of positions," Minlend said. "I'm sure it's fun to watch whenever we're doing stuff like that but it's not it's not a good formula for us to have a successful season."
San Francisco finished 20-of-60 from the floor (33.3%) and 6-of-25 (24%) from 3-point range. The Dons had come in shooting 45.6% from the field and 35.9% from beyond the arc.

While the Dons held the Gaels to just 11 tries from beyond the 3-point line (nine below their season average), held Ford to seven points under his season average and held Fitts to just four points and three rebounds in the second half, their bench was outscored 10-0.

"Our bench did not play well," Golden said. "Against a team of this caliber, you need some guys to step up and have some nights and produce."

For over half an hour after the game, Dons backup guard Tre Anderson sat, motionless, in the seats next to the basket. Point guard Jamaree Bouyea — who had 13 points on 5-of-11 shooting with an assist and two steals — sat down in the seat right next to him until the arena lights turned out.

"We're a resilient team," Minlend said. "We want to fight."
 

---

USF will return to action on Saturday night when they travel to Portland to take on the Pilots at the Chiles Center.  Saturday's game is scheduled for a 7:00 p.m. tip-off and will be televised on NBC Sports Northwest.  As always, Pat Olson and Jim Brovelli will have the call courtside on the official home of USF Dons Basketball, KNBR 1050-AM.