MORAGA, Calif. — Saint Mary's Men's Basketball continues to climb in the national rankings as the calendar prepares to turn to February. The Gaels are up four spots in both the AP and USA Today Coaches Polls, moving to No. 18 in the country in both polls. It is the second week in a row the Gaels have moved up four spots in the AP Poll, and they've jumped seven spots in the Coaches Poll over the last two weeks.
 
The No. 18 ranking is the highest for Saint Mary's since the NCAA Tournament last season, when they found themselves No. 18 in the AP Poll heading into the dance. The Gaels are one of the hottest teams in the country, actively on a 10-game winning streak, tied for the third-longest in the NCAA with Colgate. Only Florida Atlantic (20) and Eastern Washington (12) have longer streaks.
 
That winning streak was in jeopardy on Saturday night in Provo as the Gaels found themselves trailing to BYU in the final seconds. Aidan Mahaney played hero for SMC, hitting a turnaround, fadeaway jump shot with 0.3 seconds left on the clock to win the game for the Gaels 57-56. It marked the program's first win in Provo since 2017, and it came in their final trip to BYU with the Cougars in the West Coast Conference.
 
Saint Mary's continues to lead the West Coast Conference with an 8-0 record, the only unbeaten left in conference play. Gonzaga is next closest with a 7-1 record, and the Bulldogs jumped up two spots to No. 12 in the country in advance of the first week of February.
 
As far as the NCAA Net Rankings and KenPom metrics are concerned, the Gaels remain inside the top-10 in both. SMC is No. 6 in the NET Rankings and No. 7 in KenPom, while continuing to lead the West Coast Conference in both metrics as the only team in the conference inside the top-10. The Gaels rank fourth in the country in scoring defense and have not allowed a team to score more than 70 points in a game this season.
 
Saint Mary's embarks on perhaps their most difficult week of the season as they take on San Francisco and No. 12 Gonzaga at home to begin February. Both games are on the ESPN family of networks, with Thursday's 8:00 pm game on ESPNU and Saturday's 7:30 pm game on ESPN. Saturday's game against Gonzaga is sold out, but tickets remain for Thursday's game against the Dons. Tickets can be purchased at SMCGaels.com/tickets.