MORAGA, Calif. - The 2025 Credit Union 1 WCC Basketball Championships kickoff today with the first round matchups for both the men and women at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas. Saint Mary's finished conference play at an even .500 with a 10-10 record, good for sixth place in the WCC. As a result, they will play on Saturday, March 8th and await the winner of Pacific and San Diego/Pepperdine. The Toreros and Waves will face off at noon pacific time on ESPN+ and the winner will take on Pacific on Friday at 2:30 PM. 

Saint Mary's will be seeking their first conference tournament win since beating LMU in the first round in 2023. Despite dropping their regular season finale to LMU, the Gaels pulled off a 20-point comeback win over Oregon State last Thursday and also took home two major conference awards for the first time since 2010. Kennedy Johnson was named Newcomer of the Year and Emily Foy was named Sixth Woman of the year for their first career major conference awards. 

GAME COVERAGE

WBB | Saint Mary's vs. Winner of 7 vs. 10/11| Las Vegas, Nev.
Orleans Arena | Saturday, March 8th | 2:30 PM
Live Stats | Listen | ESPN+ | Tickets 

All-WCC Teams and Awards…

Ahead of the 2025 Credit Union 1 WCC Basketball Championship, Saint Mary's will bring with them some hardware after Kennedy Johnson was named the conference's Newcomer of the Year and Emily Foy this year's Sixth Woman of the Year, their first conference awards of their collegiate careers. This is the first time since 2010 the Gaels took home two major awards, that season Louella Tomlinson won both WCC Player and Defender of the Year. 

Kennedy Johnson nearly matched her numbers from her First Team All-Conference season at Idaho last year, finishing this season with 12 points and nearly six boards per game. Johnson did it all for the Gaels as a plus defender and a dominant scorer inside. She led the team with 55 steals and was second with 14 blocks. Johnson recorded a season high 25 points in the team's conference opener against Santa Clara, just one point shy of her career high. She then recorded a career high 12 rebounds later in the season in the team's rematch against Santa Clara and also her lone double-double of the year, adding 14 points.

Johnson was named to the All-WCC Honorable Mention list for her second all-conference selection of her career and earned her first conference award as WCC Newcomer of the Year.

Emily Foy made quite the jump in her sophomore season to earn Sixth Woman of the Year, her first career conference award. Foy was the team's best perimeter shooter on the season, making a team high 43 three's at 37%. She was a consistent scoring threat off the bench for the Gaels and helped spark numerous late game comebacks throughout the season. 

Foy recorded a career high 18 points in the team's 20-point win over Pacific where she was 7-for-12 from the field and drilled four three pointers. Foy had a team high eleven games with multiple three-pointers made and four games with four three's made. She finished the regular season averaging eight points and three rebounds while shooting 43% from the field. 

Largest Comeback Win of the Season… 

Last Thursday, Saint Mary's hosted Oregon State in a rematch after suffering their largest defeat of the season to the Beavers earlier in the month. The Gaels found themselves down 20 points late in the second quarter but shot the lights out in the third quarter, scoring 28 points on 77% shooting. Leading the charge was sophomore guard Maia Jones who scored 17 points in the quarter. 

Defensively, the Gaels held the Beavers to just 27 points on just 33% shooting and were able to get a defensive stop on the final possession to seal the comeback victory. After struggling from three over the final month of the season, Saint Mary's went on to hit five timely three's in the second half to truly swing momentum down the stretch. Kennedy Johnson and Zeryhia Aokuso also combined for 24 points.

Saint Mary's has shown they have the ability to compete with every team in the conference come tournament time with timely shooting and one of the top defenses in the WCC, allowing just 64 points per game.  

Breaking Down the Bracket...

Saint Mary's enters the Credit Union 1 WCC Basketball Championship as the sixth seed and will await the winner of Pacific and San Diego/Pepperdine. San Diego and Pepperdine will play today at 12:00 PM on ESPN+ and the winner will take on Pacific tomorrow afternoon at 2:30 PM. 

Of those three potential opponents, the Gaels are a combined 6-0 on the season with sweeps over all three. Washington State will be on the other side of the Gaels game on Saturday as the three seed, finishing conference play with an impressive 14-6 record in their first season as a part of the West Coast Conference. On the same side of the bracket is two seed Portland who has an automatic bye to the semi-finals on Monday, March 10th. 

The path to the championship game on the other side of the bracket will go through three seed Oregon State and then top seed Gonzaga in the semi-finals. Gonzaga and Portland matched each other win-for-win down the stretch of the regular season to be crowned WCC Regular Season Co-Champions.  

  

Credit Union 1 WCC Basketball Championships Information…

All games throughout the tournament will be streamed live on ESPN+ and the championship game will be streamed on ESPN2. Orleans Arena in Las Vegas will play host for the 2025 Credit Union 1 WCC Basketball Championships. Additional media links, merchandise and interactive brackets can be found below:

TV: ESPN+
Live Stats
Merchandise
WCC Tournament Central

All games for the Credit Union 1 WCC Basketball Championships will be streamed live on ESPN+ with the championship game being streamed live on ESPN2. Additional tournament information, schedules, brackets, game times, media links and more can be found at wccsports.com. 

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