Saint Mary’s rallied from a 12-point second-half deficit and claimed a first-round win Friday in the NCAA Tournament for the third time in four years.

The seventh-seeded Gaels, despite missing 16 of their first 18 3-point attempts, downed No. 10-seed Vanderbilt 59-56 at Cleveland’s Rocket Arena.

“Obviously for Saint Mary’s College, it’s big for our program,” Saint Mary’s coach Randy Bennett told reporters afterward. “It’s hard to get past the first round.”

Next up is a Sunday matchup against No. 2-seed Alabama, which pulled away for a 90-81 win against No. 15 Robert Morris in the East Region’s preceding game.

“Alabama, we all know Alabama. They were in the Final Four last year,” Bennett said. “We were supposed to play them in this upcoming (second-round) game last year and we didn’t get the job done.”

Saint Mary’s got upset in last year’s first round by No. 12 seed Grand Canyon.

Friday, four Gaels scored in double-digits: Jordan Ross (15), Augustus Marciulionis (14), Luke Barrett (12), and Mitchell Saxen (12).

Saint Mary’s was 2 of 16 on 3-point attempts in the first half but finished 7 of 25, and while that isn’t great, Vanderbilt was just 8 of 26 from 3-point range, including a pair of misses in the final 13 seconds.

With St. Mary’s down 29-22 at halftime, that deficit grew to 12 points, the 3-point shooting slumped to a 2 of 18 mark, and Marciulionis headed to the bench with his fourth foul.

Enter Ross, who alternated layups and 3-point baskets, to which he said: “We needed someone to play make and get down hill. I started to be more aggressive.”

“Ross played really well in the second half when we needed to get back in the game,” Bennett said.

Ross and Saxen combined for 16 points over an 8-minute stretch. Once Ross hit a corner 3-pointer, the score was tied at 43 with 8 minutes remaining.

The March Madness momentum had swung Saint Mary’s way.

Marciulionis’ 3-pointer put the Gaels ahead 46-45 with 6:54 remaining — their first lead since the game’s opening minutes, when they were ahead for just 42 seconds. Marciulionis hit another go-ahead 3-pointer with 4:32 remaining for a 53-50 lead. It was quite the turnaround not only for Saint Mary’s but the WCC’s two-time reigning player of the year

Asked what the locker room was like at halftime, Bennett said: “I was pretty real with them. We weren’t playing well. We had six turnovers. Some guys got called out a little bit, and Augustus was one of them, until the last 10 minutes when we put him back in.”

The Gaels’ 2-of-16 shooting on 3-point attempts in the first half was a grim reminder of their 0-for-16 effort on 3-point attempts in their last game, a 58-51 loss to Gonzaga in the West Coast Conference Tournament title game 10 days earlier. In fact, Saint Mary’s was just 2 of 13 on 3-point attempts in its WCC semifinal win over Pepperdine.

Saint Mary’s has won 19 of its past 21 games.

Saxen has played in a program-record 155 games, and he wants to make it to No. 157 and match the 2010 team’s Sweet 16 appearance. As for how Friday’s win ranks in school history, he said: “It’s up there, but to get one really up there, we need to get the next one. I’m tired of hearing (associate head coach) Mickey McConnel say, ‘I was on that Sweet 16 team.’ It’s time to put another team in the history books for us.”