Geraldton’s Alex Ducas’ college career comes to an end after St Mary’s fall in upset loss to Grand Canyon

Geraldton basketball star Alex Ducas’ college career has come to an end after St Mary’s were eliminated from the NCAA Tournament on the weekend. The Gaels entered the first round as the fifth seed, the third year in a row for the program, and they were set up against the 12th seed Grand Canyon. Each game is win or go home in March madness, and St Mary’s entered their first-round match as the favourites over a school that has never won a tournament game before. However, the game was tight early with Grand Canyon taking a one-point lead at the half and they outscored the Gaels by eight in the second to take the 75-66 win and eliminate them from the NCAA division one tournament, ending St Mary’s season. The Geraldton local was kept quiet in the loss, scoring just three points, with three rebounds and one steal. After the disappointing loss, Ducas supported the school’s approach and backed in his teammates for their future success. “You can’t jump the gun on that sort of stuff,” he said. “I think we’re right where we are — we’re a small school in a small area, and we don’t get much love, but we play hard and we’re good at what we do. “We’re just at the start of our growth, come back and talk to these guys in 10 years and hopefully interview them after the Final Four.” Despite the loss, the game gave Ducas the record for most games played for the Gaels all time with 150. He tied the record with Tommy Kuhse in their conference championship win and the game on Saturday made him the sole record holder. Ducas is one of many Australians that have suited up for the Gaels over the years, with school alumni including Aussie NBA talents Patty Mills, Matthew Dellavedova and Jock Landale. With his time at the Gaels now over, Ducas has cemented his name all over the schools history books as he finishes 14th all time in scoring, ninth in field goal attempts, second in three points made, second in three points attempted and tied second for most games started. The 2022-23 season was originally meant to be the end of the 204cm player’s time at St Mary’s, but following a back injury in their tournament loss last year, Ducas activated his pandemic exemption to return for a fifth year. During his final year as a collegiate player, the 23-year-old averaged 9.9 points per game, 5.6 rebounds and 1.9 assists on 34 games played, with the latter two being career highs, and was selected to the All-WCC second team.