The Saint Mary's starting backcourt of Joe Rahon and Emmett Naar combined for 39 points on 17-of-27 shooting from the field, leading the Gaels to a 78-61 win over visiting Stanford on Sunday night.

Rahon, a Boston College transfer, finished with a game-high 24 points on 11-of-16 shooting, while Naar had 15 points on 6-of-11 shooting for Saint Mary's (3-0). Naar hit three of his four 3-point attempts as the Gaels made 56.3 percent (nine of 16) from beyond the arc and 56.6 percent from the floor overall.

Stanford (2-2) was led by 18 points from forward Reid Travis and 14 points from guard Marcus Allen. When Allen picked up his fourth foul and had to sit with 14:42 remaining in regulation, the Cardinal led 45-44.

Saint Mary's, which trailed 37-33 at halftime, took advantage of Allen's absence and scored the next 10 points, seven of them from Rahon, to build a 54-45 lead with 11:33 remaining.

After Stanford trimmed the lead to 52-47 with 7:45 left, Saint Mary's answered again with a 12-2 run to put the game out of reach with a 69-54 margin with 3:21 remaining. During that spell, the Cardinal committed three turnovers and went 1-for-3 from the field.

The Bay Area teams, less than 50 miles apart, had not played each other in men's basketball since 2002, which was their only meeting in the past 27 years.