Omar Samhan

PROVIDENCE, R.I. ― Five minutes into Saint Mary's first-round NCAA Tournament game against Richmond, center Omar Samhan was on pace for 80 points. Coach Randy Bennett, cagey customer that he is, wasn't investing in any such whimsy. "They weren't going to let him get 50," he said. Equally certain was that Saint Mary's would have to get other players involved on offense. In the heady moments after the Gaels' 80-71 victory, their first in the NCAA Tournament in 51 years, Bennett insisted that would have happened organically.

"They were going to bring help (defensively)," Bennett said, "and help, if Omar makes good decisions, gets other guys involved."

But this makes a better story:

With 6:31 to play in the first half, Samhan picked up his third foul. As he exited the game, he had scored 14 of his team's 22 points. And after the two free throws that resulted from his foul, the Gaels trailed by four.

How bad would it get without their big fella?

"It was a big point in the game," guard Mickey McConnell said. "We were going inside a lot up until then. we kind of (got) on a run without Omar."

Saint Mary's outscored Richmond 14-10 for the rest of the half, at which point the Gaels were fully engaged. McConnell was casting moonbeams from beyond the 3-point arc. Clint Steindl drained three treys. Five different Gaels ― including four who aren't named Omar ― got to the line, where Saint Mary's outscored

Richmond 20-11.

When Samhan picked up his fourth foul midway through the second half? No big deal. the Gaels scored 11 of the next 14 points and led by double digits until a so-what Richmond basket at the horn.

So while it might be dabbling in hyperbole to suggest the loss of their best player served as a catalyst for Saint Mary's, it's close enough to the truth to illustrate this team's fundamental appeal.

"It's awesome," said Bennett, who took two other Saint Mary's teams to the tournament without success. "You're just proud of your guys. they have to believe. they have all year, and I'm real proud of them."

Bennett keeps suggesting that for all the talent he's had at the school, this might be his best team. the further it goes, the fewer qualifiers he uses. And while he insists that he has any number of players capable of authoring game-defining moments, on Thursday these made better stories:

The first was Beau Levesque, a 6-foot-5 freshman who came in after Samhan's third foul. His five points, five rebounds and one assist do a poor job of quantifying the quality of his game and tell you nothing about his attitude and energy. the 13 minutes he played tell you everything about the unlikely nature of his contributions ― they were more than he had played in Saint Mary's previous 10 games combined, and tied his career high set Dec. 30 against Howard.

It was a matchup thing, Bennett said. "Looking back," he said, "maybe I should have been playing him all year."

Then there were the sequences, before and after halftime, that McConnell dropped on Richmond point guard and Atlantic 10 Conference player of the year Kevin Anderson. In the first, McConnell burned as much of the shot clock as he could. then after a flurry of between-the-legs dribbles and jab steps at Anderson, McConnell launched a cloud-dusting 3-pointer.

Ten seconds remained in the half. Anderson blew upcourt and drove the lane, but the defense collapsed and he airballed a short floater.

On Saint Mary's first possession of the second half, McConnell went at Anderson again, was fouled and made two free throws. Anderson, who scored 11 points in the first half, was barely heard from again until scoring twice in the final anticlimactic minute.

"I don't think he lost his confidence as much as we just tried to focus on keeping him out of the paint," McConnell said when it was suggested he might have crept inside Anderson's head. "I think it was more our defensive focus. we just tried to make him shoot tough shots. I think we did a pretty good job with that."

Clearly these guys are better at creating a good story than telling it. Except for Samhan, of course. he finished with 29 points and 12 boards in 28 lively minutes, helping Saint Mary's to an astonishing 40-17 rebounding advantage.

"Coming into the year nobody thought we were going to be good," he said. "We love that nobody expects us to do it."

That, too, may be flirting with hyperbole. Subject to change, the way these guys are going.

Contact Gary Peterson at gpeterson@bayareanewsgroup.com.

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