The only current Saint Mary's starter who was not a starter last season continues to be the dominant player for the 15th-ranked Gaels.

Jock Landale, a 6-foot-11 Australian who averaged 7.8 points off the bench last season as a sophomore, collected 20 points and eight rebounds Sunday afternoon to help Saint Mary's beat the University of Alabama at Birmingham 76-63 at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas.

Landale came into the game averaging 21.3 points on 75 percent shooting from the field, and he improved on the latter by making 9 of 11 shots. Landale made his only three-point attempt Saturday and also sank his lone free throw, making him 14 for 16 from the free-throw line for the season.

As a team, the Gaels (5-0) made 13 of 26 three-point attempts and shot 52 percent from the field overall.

"They're, obviously, one of the best teams in the country," said first-year UAB coach Robert Ehsan, whose team fell to 3-3. "They shot the ball extremely well."

The Gaels' outside shooting touch finally deserted them down the stretch, which is when Landale came to the rescue. From the 7:22 mark of the second half until Emmett Naar hit a three-pointer with 38 seconds remaining, Landale kept Saint Mary's in control by making all three of his field-goal attempts while his teammates were a combined 0 for 8 from the field.

"This game was good for us," Saint Mary's coach Randy Bennett said. "I think it'll help us. It'll help us resume-wise and it'll help us as a team, to go against a team that is that athletic and that big, and a team that is used to winning -- they won 26 games last year."

Landale battled in the paint with UAB's 6-8 Chris Cokley, who scored 20 points on 10-of-13 shooting.

"Chris was good," Ehsan said. "We got him the ball and he got in a rhythm offensively. He's been playing like this the last couple of games. We probably need to get him some more shots, to be honest with you."

Deion Lavender, who scored 10 points, was the only other UAB player in double figures. Dirk Williams, who was the Blazers' leading scorer coming into the game at 13.4 points per game, was 1 for 9 from the field and finished with four points, all in the second half.

Stefan Gonzalez (4 of 6 on three-point shots), Naar (2 of 3 from long range) and Calvin Hermanson (2 of 6 from beyond the arc) scored 12 points apiece for Saint Mary's. The Gaels also made all nine of their free throws. Gonzalez did his work in just 13 minutes off the bench and is now 10 for 18 from three-point range for the season.

"We got some good minutes out of Stef," Bennett said.

Gaels guard Joe Rahon had only six points, but he and backcourt mate Naar each had seven assists and played all 40 minutes.

"Our guards did a really good job of controlling the game," Bennett said.

The Gaels used a 10-0 run late in the first half to take a 17-point lead 2:01 before halftime and held a 43-27 lead at the break. Saint Mary's had 14 assists on 15 made field goals in the first 20 minutes.

UAB got within seven points on Williams' two free throws with 14:33 remaining in the second half, but Gonzalez hit a three-pointer to push the margin back to 10, and UAB never got closer than nine the rest of the way.

NOTES: Orleans Arena, the site of Sunday's game, is also the venue for the West Coast Conference tournament. This game gave Saint Mary's players an opportunity to get accustomed to the surroundings, although the crowd was quite small. ... F Dane Pineau, a preseason all-conference selection who missed the previous game with back spasms, played seven minutes off the bench Sunday. ... UAB played two ranked opponents in less than a week. The Blazers lost to Kansas on Wednesday. ... This was the first-ever meeting between UAB and Saint Mary's. ... UAB returned four starters from last season's squad, which won the Conference USA regular-season title and finished 26-7. However, starting point guard Nick Norton suffered a torn ACL in the Blazers' first game this season.