MORAGA, Calif. — After the festivities celebrating the 500^th win in the coaching career of Paul Thomas subsided, the Gaels had to quickly shift gears from "looking back" to "taking care of business." Taking on Loyola Marymount University on Saturday afternoon, the Gaels were looking to keep their unbeaten start in West Coast Conference play, and they did just that. Behind a few more stellar performances, Saint Mary's defeated LMU 86-70 inside University Credit Union Pavilion to run their record to 9-6 (4-0) while dropping the Lions to 4-13 (0-4).
 
ONE-UPPING HERSELF
This season has been one of constant improvement for Emily Codding. The junior guard out of Santa Rosa has already set new career-highs in points and rebounds on multiple occasions, and was at it again on Saturday. She literally one-upped herself by posting her sixth double-double of the season, complete with 29 points and 14 rebounds, eclipsing previous career-highs of 28 and 13. Codding was dangerous from the field, going 13-18 in the contest while grabbing 12 of her boards on the defensive end. 
 
SHAKE IT OFF
The game got off to a slow start for the Gaels, who led by just a single point after the first ten minutes of basketball. In that opening stanza, the Gaels shot just 33.3% from the field, over 11 poitns lower than their season average. The turned it around in a hurry in the final three quarters, where the Gaels were over 52% in each of the last three quarters, including over 62% in the second and fourth. Four of the five leading scorers on the day for the Gaels shot over 50%. Taycee Wedin (5-8), Madeline Holland (7-10), and Mia Grizelj (2-3) went over the 50% mark, along with Codding.
 
UNBEATEN
The win pushes the Gaels to 4-0 in conference play for the first time since the 2014-15 season, when the Gaels opened up that campaign 4-0 before falling in overtime in their fifth conference game of the season. That year, the Gaels went 13-5 in WCC play before qualifying for the WNIT at the end of March, where they won three games before losing to UCLA. 
 
QUOTABLE
"We've all had to change our roles a little bit, and we've started to adapt," said Codding following the win, in reference to the 4-0 WCC start despite a few injuries. "We've got a few players starting to come back and we are beginning to find our groove. We wanted to start this week off strong and 4-0 is what we wanted to do."
 
UP NEXT
The Gaels are back on the road next weekend with a pair of WCC on the schedule. First, the Gaels will travel to Spokane, Washington to take on No. 17 Gonzaga on Thursday, January 9 at 6:00 pm. The team will begin the journey back home on Saturday when they change states into Oregon to take on Portland on Saturday at 2:00 pm.
 
#GaelsRise – For ticket information to all home basketball games, call the SMC Ticket Office today at 925-631-4689 or click the ticket link here to purchase your seats now.