MORAGA, Calif. – The Gaels will stay in Northern California for their two games this week, hosting Montana State on Friday night, and heading up to UC Davis on Sunday.
 
Saint Mary's is 1-2 all time vs. Montana State, winning their lone home match up with them in program history in 1991, 78-68 in double overtime. Montana State would win in Bozeman, Mont. the following year 91-57. They resumed the series last year with a similar loss in Bozeman of 91-56, so the Gaels will look keep the pattern going with a home win this season.
 
SMC has a long-standing series with their rivals from the Big West, and lead the series 10-9 overall after defeating the Aggies 58-53 on December 3 of last year.
 
THE DETAILS
Saint Mary's (3-5) vs. Montana State (3-5)
Friday, December 8 at 6:30 p.m.
UCU Pavilion – Moraga, Calif.    
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THE DETAILS
Saint Mary's (3-5) at UC Davis (3-5)
Sunday, December 10 at 2:00 p.m.
UCU Center – Davis, Calif.    
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LAST TIME OUT
The Cal Bears jumped out to double-digit lead against the Gaels on Saturday afternoon, and kept the Saint Mary's Women's Basketball team from getting any closer than five points in a 74-69 loss at Haas Pavilion.
 
Saint Mary's would trail by as many as 13 early in the second quarter, but would chip away at the deficit and cut it to five on a Tayla Dalton layup. The Bears would get their lead back to eight, but a Maia Jones three pointer with 20 seconds to go in the half made it a 38-33 game at the break, as SMC won the quarter 16-9.
 
A Zeryhia Aokuso jumper to start the fourth cut the deficit to eight points, but Cal would go on a run again. The Bears would lead by as many as 15 with just over four minutes left to play, before SMC could trim it to eight points on a pair of Nadia Bernard free throws with 1:46 to go, as the Gaels ran out of time to pull off the comeback
 
ABOUT MONTANA STATE
The Bobcats were picked to finish fourth in the Big Sky Conference. Montana State returns eight letter winners, including three starters from last year's squad that recorded a 20-11 overall mark and a 13-5 league ledger, en route to capturing a regular season Big Sky title. Returning starters include fifth-year Madison (Jackson) Hall and Katelynn Limardo. They recently lost senior Lexi Deden for the season to a knee injury, who was averaging 13.8 points and 8.3 rebounds per game.

The Bobcats are under the direction of Tricia Binford, who enters her 19th season at the helm of the MSU program. The Montana State women's basketball team has won the Big Sky Conference regular season or tournament title – or both – in six of the most recent eight seasons. The Bobcats have posted five of the program's eight 20-win seasons in the last eight years, as well.
 
Montana State is coming off a loss where they gave up a late 10-2 run to Washington midway through the fourth quarter and the Huskies held on for a 55-50 victory over the Bobcats on Tuesday night in Alaska Airlines Arena.

Montana State (3-5) stayed with Washington (9-0) throughout most of the game, trailing 44-42 with 8:42 left as senior Taylor Janssen hit a turnaround jumper off the glass. Over the next five minutes, the Huskies increased the margin to 54-44 as an Elle Ladine three-pointer gave Washington its largest lead of the contest at the 3:03 mark.
 
ABOUT UC DAVIS
The UC Davis women's basketball team was picked to finish third in the league standings, and received three first-place votes according to a vote by the league's coaches.
 
Coming off of their strong 2022-23 seasons, Evanne Turner and Tova Sabel were selected to the Big West Preseason Coaches' Team. Turner recently passed both Ellen Porshneva and Aimee Conner to move up to number eight on the UC Davis all-time scoring list. She now has 1,283 points for her career and now has seventh-place Alyson Doherty in her sights, who scored 1,308 points from 2012-2016.

#GaelsRise — 2023-24 tickets and ticket packages are on sale now! To purchase tickets, click here. If you have questions, contact the ticket office by email smctickets@stmarys-ca.edu or call 925-631-4689.