St. Mary's Outlasts MTSU for Right to Play Memphis

Matthew Dellavedova (pictured) extended his brilliant career at St. Mary’s at least one more game when St. Mary’s outlasted Middle Tennessee State 67-54 in a battle of 11-seeds. Dellavedova was rated as the 152nd best player of 4000 as a freshman in 2010, and has been in the top 100 every other year of his career.

Breitbart Sports’ “by the numbers” alphabetical analysis of all games picked the correct winners in both Tuesday night games (North Carolina A&T also won), though the “play-in” games Tuesday and Wednesday are never included in office and online brackets. The new official term for what was known as the “play-in” games is the first round, but that continually confuses the fans of the 60 teams who do not play Tuesday or Wednesday and then have their first game called the “second round.”

The game was a battle early on before the Gaels went on a run at the end of the second half, looking dominant and suffocating the Blue Raiders with a strong defensive performance. The score was 29-20 at the half.

At the start of the second half, the scoring ratcheted up and St. Mary’s continued with a stellar performance, establishing a lead of 41-31. The Blue Raiders would then go on a 7-0 run to close the gap to 3, but it was all St. Mary’s from there.

Dellavedova led the way for the Gaels with 22 points. He has been their leading scorer this season with 15.8 ppg. The leading scorer for the Blue Raiders, Marcos Knight, who averages 12.5 ppg, came through for Middle Tennessee State with 16 points.

Breitbart Sports correctly predicted the Middle Tennessee State would be included in the field of 68 well before most experts, and while Joe Lundardi added them near the end, they were the only team that Jerry Palm of CBS Sports left out of the tournament in his final bracket.

St. Mary’s will move on to face Memphis in the first round where our analysis shows a “toss up” game with the Tigers the slight favorite. Based on the Gaels performance Tuesday night, Memphis will not be resting easy, and the Tigers are facing a serious threat.