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Saint Mary's Takes Down BYU In Thriller

Matthew Dellavedova took over late like any good senior and led the Gaels to a last second win that pulls them back up the West Coast Conference ladder.

USA TODAY Sports

What a wild finish to this one.

With just under 35 seconds remaining, Dellavedova drives the lane and his defender flops out of his way to try and take a charge, leaving a wide open jumper from the elbow; game tied at 67-67.

Not to worry for Cougar fans, as stud sophomore Tyler Haws took the ball at the wing, dribbled into the paint and drilled a floater to put BYU back up by two points with only 2.5 seconds remaining.

It looked bleak for Saint Mary's, as the Gaels were without timeouts, but Dellavedova was able to catch the inbounds pass almost at mid-court, and had time for a dribble and two steps before launching up a 50 footer - which he promptly swished through the net to give his team a 70-69 road win.

Haws and Dellavedova put on a show for the crowd, as they combined to outscore everyone else on the court by a 21-16 margin over the last eight minutes of play and did all of the scoring in the final two minutes.

I'm sure BYU never expected the game to wind up here, especially after they opened up a 20-4 lead by the under-12 TV timeout on the strength of 10 points for Matt Carlino (I told you, didn't I?) and shutting out the Gaels from deep (0-for-7).

Unfortunately, the Cougar defense eventually regressed to the mean, holding Saint Mary's to 42% field goal shooting for the game, but allowing them to go 10-for-18 from long range the remainder of the game.

Brandon Davies opening the second half by missing his first three shots and then collecting his second and third fouls, all within the opening 100 seconds, probably helped that 16 point lead disappear. So did Stephen Hold dropping in half of those three-point baskets on his way to 22 points for the night.

BYU will need to recover quickly as they welcome San Diego onto their court, while the Gaels will try to carry this good feeling up to play Portland before returning home to play the very same San Diego squad.