San Francisco 68, St. Mary's 67

MORAGA,Calif. (AP) Jason Gaines scored his only basket of the game with 2.9 seconds left as San Francisco rallied for a 68-67 victory over St. Mary's on Saturday.

St. Mary's (11-10, 4-4 West Coast Conference) had taken a one-point lead on Ross Benson's 3-pointer with 5.9 seconds to play.

Gaines took the inbounds pass and dribbled the length of the court before hitting an eight-foot jump shot for the game winner, giving San Francisco (10-11, 5-3) its third straight conference victory.

Darrell Tucker led all scorers with 25 points for San Francisco, passing Bill Russell on the school's all-time scoring list. Tucker has now scored 1,640 points in his collegiate career. He also had eight rebounds.

Benson had a season-high 21 points for St. Mary's.

St. Mary's built an 11-point lead early in the second half, before a 9-0 San Francisco run put the Dons in front. Later San Francisco led by as many as five points, before St. Mary's came back to take their brief lead with seconds left to play.

(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)