MORAGA, Calif. — With three weeks to go in the college basketball regular season, the Gaels (21-4, 11-1 WCC) remain in pole position in the WCC. Despite suffering their first loss of the calendar year 2025 at the hands of San Francisco, the Gaels responded with a 14 point trouncing of Oregon State at Gill Coliseum, and return home with a 1.5 game lead in the WCC. On the docket this week for the Gaels are two more top tier WCC foes, Santa Clara (17-9, 9-4 4th in WCC) and Washington State (16-10, 6-7 7th in WCC).
THE DETAILS
Saint Mary's Gaels vs. Santa Clara Broncos
Tuesday, February 11 at 8 PM
UCU Pavilion – Moraga, Calif.
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Saint Mary's Gaels vs. Washington State Cougars
Saturday, February 15 at 7 PM
UCU Pavilion – Moraga, Calif.
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With their win over Oregon State on January 8, the Gaels have now beaten every team in the WCC. This is the fourth consecutive time that the Gaels have accomplished this feat. This year, the accomplishment is even more impressive when factoring in that this is the first year that Washington State and Oregon State have been added to the WCC.
ABOUT THE BRONCOS
Behind Saint Mary's and Gonzaga, the Santa Clara Broncos currently are the WCC team with next best chances of making the NCAA tournament with an at-large bid, with a net ranking of 54. With a 17-9 record, including 9-4 in WCC play, they currently site 3.5 games behind the first place Gaels with five games left in their conference slate. 9th year Head Coach Herb Sendek leads a veteran squad that features 13 returners from a year ago. The Gaels defeated the Broncos on 1/29, 67-54, but Santa Clara has not lost since, defeating the likes of Pacific, Portland and San Diego by an average margin of victory of nearly 35 points. Elijah Mahi has been the hottest player of late for the Broncos, earning this past week's WCC Player of the Week honors, with his first double-double against Portland (11 pts and 10 reb) followed by a career-high 28 points vs San Diego. In their meeting with the Gaels earlier this year, Saint Mary's took a two point lead into the halftime break, but used a 30-0 run to pull away early in the second half, ultimately winning by 13. Carlos Stewart Jr dropped 24 points against the Gaels, while Saint Mary's had seven players score between eight and 12 points. All-time, Santa Clara leads the series 140-103, but the Gaels have won each of the last seven matchups.
ABOUT THE COUGARS
Despite pushing the Gaels to the brink before ultimately falling 80-75 in Pullman, the Washington State Cougars have fallen on hard times since their loss to SMC. That loss was the second of a five game skid that only ended on Saturday with a one point thrilling victory over Pepperdine. As such, the Cougs have fallen to seventh place in the WCC with a 16-10 record and a 6-7 conference record, needing to win out and to get some help to remain in the hunt for a WCC regular season title share. First year Head Coach David Riley enters arguably the toughest gauntlet of this season, as his squad will take on Saint Mary's, Gonzaga and Santa Clara over their next three games. Since their last meeting, the Cougs got shooting guard Isaiah Watts back healthy, but it unfortunately hasn't equivocated to more wins. Point guard Nate Calmese continues to captain the WSU ship, averaging 16 points per game, including 20.5 over the two games last week. In their matchup in Pullman, it was a clash of two stellar four men, as the Cougars' Ethan Price scored 20, but was outmatched by the Gaels Paulius Murauskas, who dropped 25 to go along with 12 boards. This will be just the fourth all-time meeting between the Cougs and Gaels, with Saint Mary's leading the series 2-1.
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