March 20, 2025
NCAA Tournament First Round
East Region
(6) Buffalo Bulls 26-6 (15) vs. (11) St. Mary's Gaels 23-10
"On film St. Mary's is the most well coached team we have seen all season. On offensive they really execute their system well. They feature a solid center who they surround with skilled jump shooters. St. Mary's on offense really spaces the floor, our players will have to be on high alert because their players make excellent cuts without the basketball. They are top 10 in the nation in terms of not turning the ball over. We will definitely challenge them in that regard as a team we get over 8 steals a game and force 16 turnovers per game. St. Mary's came out in a 1-3-1 zone which we had not seen much of when watching film on them. Our players were out of rhythm early, we missed our first 7 threes of the game. If it wasn't for Lamont Fisher inside who scored 10 of our first 12 players, we would have been in a huge hole. Despite his efforts St. Mary's had a 30-23 lead at the halfway point of the first half. James Finley finally hit our first 3 at the 8-minute mark, that ignited us as we went on an 11-0 run to take a 37-35 lead. Both teams traded the lead back and forth, but it was St. Mary's who took a 48-47 lead into the half.
In the locker a look at the numbers show St. Mary's were picking us apart, they one turned the ball over three times so our press was not having its desired impact. Coach Tyler decided to switch to a full court man to man press. He felt the St. Mary's players had too much air space and we needed to get right in their faces. Offensively we felt good about the tempo the game was being played at because the game was being played at the pace we like. In addition, we play 10 players while St. Mary's tends to only play 7 player which we feel will lead to fatigue one their end if the game continues at this pace. The second half continued to be played at a lightning like pace, neither team was giving an inch. The entirety of the second have was played within a 4-point radius, anytime a team got a lead it couldn't be extended. St. Mary's took an 84-82 lead at the 2:30 minute mark, Matt immediately rushed the ball back up the court and found a cutting Irv for a dunk. St. Mary's once again took the lead only for us to respond quick with Lamont scoring off a good hook shot. A timeout was called, Coach Tyler told the players the team that can make the next stop will win this game. St. Mary's ran a great inbounds play to take an 88-86 lead with 59 seconds left. James rose up for a 3 which went off the rim, Irv out jumped two St. Mary's players to grab the rebound and put it back to tie the score at 88 with 37 seconds left. Coach Tyler called a timeout, in the huddle he drew up the play we would run when we got the ball back. With the amount of time left we knew regardless of St. Mary's if scored or not we would get one more possession. They ran the clock down as much as they could before settling on a play that had been quite successful for them, Matt read it and made the play of the game drawing a charge with 10 seconds left. We were going to have James curl off a double screen to take a shot with about 3-4 seconds left to allow for an offensive rebound if he missed. Matt found James off the double screen, James rose up and hit nothing but net to put us up 90-88 with 3 seconds left. St. Mary's got the ball to halfcourt and launched a desperation 3 that hit off the backboard securing our passage to the next round.