GAME NOTES: Tied with Gonzaga atop the West Coast Conference standings entering this week and back in the top-25, the Gaels of Saint Mary's try to take a step in the right direction as they visit league foe San Diego at Jenny Craig Pavilion tonight. On Saturday night, the Gaels, who joined the rankings Monday at No. 21, denied San Francisco head coach Eddie Sutton the 800th win of his career with a 79-57 triumph at War Memorial Gym. The victory was the fifth in a row for the squad, which lost to 14th-ranked Texas on the road earlier this month as one of their two setbacks thus far. With the win over USF, Saint Mary's moved to a perfect 4-0 in conference. Meanwhile, San Diego was also in action over the weekend, picking up a narrow 53-51 win over Santa Clara to move to 3-1 in WCC play. The team has now won two in a row and three of its last four, but has yet to string together three straight victories this season. With respect to the all-time series between these two schools on the hardwood, the Toreros lead the Gaels by a count of 32-30, with each team winning on the other's floor last season.

The Gaels shot better than 53 percent from the field in both the first and second halves on Saturday night as they cruised to the win over San Francisco on the road. Omar Samhan registered a double-double for the visitors with 18 points and a game-high 15 rebounds, while Patrick Mills checked in with 24 points on 4-of-8 shooting behind the three-point line. Tron Smith added 11 points off the bench and Ian O'Leary tallied 10 points and six boards. Beating opponents by an average of 14.4 ppg this season, the Gaels are getting 15.3 ppg from Mills and 12.8 ppg from Simpson. Also the top threat in the middle for SMC, Simpson paces the group with his 9.2 rpg and already has 39 blocked shots. Not to be ignored is Omar Samhan and his 11.9 ppg, 7.8 rpg and 29 rejections. However, shooting just 55 percent at the free-throw line means that Samhan can be a liability at times for the Gaels.

The Toreros didn't exactly impress anyone with their performance on Saturday night, but the outcome was still a positive one nonetheless. San Diego made just 33.9 percent from the field and 3-of-12 behind the three-point line in the two-point decision. Brandon Johnson posted 19 points for the home team and Gyno Pomare notched a double-double with 11 points and a team-best 10 rebounds. USD hasn't played all that great against other WCC squads thus far, averaging a mere 58.2 ppg, but at least the squad has held those foes to an identical number and come up with three wins in four tries. Johnson is putting up 15.8 ppg in those contests and Pomare adds 13.3 ppg and 8.3 rpg as he struggles to shoot close to 40 percent from the field. When it comes to overall numbers this season, Pomare is shooting 52.5 percent from the floor as he and Johnson produce a combined 31.5 ppg to account for almost half of the squad's collective 63.3 ppg this season.

With such a balanced scoring attack, the Gaels have found a way to make everyone happy and still win, which is going to happen yet again tonight in San Diego.