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St. Mary's tries to rebound against UC Irvine (Dec 11, 2016)
No. 12 Saint Mary's will be a top-25 team for at least one more game, as the Gaels host UC Irvine (5-5) in an 8 p.m. ET game Sunday in Moraga, Calif.
Whether the Gaels remain ranked might depend on how they respond to Thursday's 15-point home loss to Texas-Arlington.
"If you get beat, then you have to bounce back," Saint Mary's coach Randy Bennett said after the 65-51 loss to Texas-Arlington.
Before that game, Arlington coach Scott Cross said the Gaels "are nearly unbeatable at home."
Well, the Mavericks showed they are beatable at McKeon Pavilion, where the Gaels had won 23 of their last 24 games before being dominated by Arlington.
The Gaels (6-1) were limited to 31.4 percent shooting after coming into the game shooting 53.2 percent, third in the country. Saint Mary's averaged only nine turnovers in its first six games, but had 10 in the first half against Arlington.
"We just ... I don't know," Bennett said. "I can't put my finger on it. I thought we got outplayed in every phase."
Was it the five-day layoff after their road victory over Stanford? Was it the loss of focus because St. Mary's had final exams this week? Is Saint Mary's susceptible to teams with quickness, as it seemed Thursday? Is Saint Mary's simply not as good as its ranking suggested?
"Turnovers and rebounding is what bothered me most ... and defense," Bennett said.
Guard Emmett Naar, who averaged 7.7 assists through six games this season and was the Gaels' leading scorer when he was an all-conference selection last season, was limited to two points and one assist while committing three turnovers against Arlington.
Center Jock Landale leads the Gaels in scoring at 18.9 points while hitting 70.1 percent of his shots.
The Gaels hope to regain their confidence against UC Irvine. The Anteaters had not played a home game since Nov. 19 before beating Division III Pomona Pitzer 80-53 on Friday, and Sunday's game will begin another stretch of five straight road games for Irvine.
The Anteaters lost to Arizona in Tucson by 18 points on Tuesday, and their most recent win over a Division I team came on Nov. 30, when they won at Santa Clara 58-55.
"I'm excited to win a close game in a road environment and with a young team," Irvine head coach Russell Turner said after beating the Broncos.
Winning a close game was critical because two weeks earlier the Anteaters let a 13-point, second-half lead get away in an overtime loss to Cal, which was ranked 25th at the time.
"I'm proud of our guys, but to be what I think we can be, we will have to finish better than that," Turner said after that loss.
The Anteaters missed a chance for their first win against a top-25 team in 11 years. Irvine will have another chance against a ranked team on Sunday.
Arlington was 0-28 against top-25 teams before its convincing victory on Thursday.
Irvine uses depth to try to outlast opponents, with 10 players averaging more than 10 minutes a game and only one averaging more than 23. The one player who gets more court time is Jaron Martin, the team's leading scorer at 13.4 points per game.
The Anteaters have been without their best player, guard Luke Nelson, all season. A first-team All-Big West Conference selection last season, Nelson is out indefinitely because of a hamstring injury.
On Nov. 29, Turner told the Orange County Register that Nelson was close to returning.
"It's a tough deal because he's got a hamstring issue, which is difficult to define," Turner said. "I feel like he is close to playing. But until he is 100 percent, I'm going to be cautious with that, and that's because the conference race and the conference tournament specifically are so much more vital than the games that we're playing now."
It is uncertain whether Nelson will make his season debut Sunday.
