Photo by: SMC Athletics / Piper Westrom
Kroner's Corner Season 2: A Final Kennel Visit as WCC Foes
1/29/2026 12:03:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Late in the first half of his first game against Gonzaga, on Feb. 4, 2023, Saint Mary's then-freshman center Harry Wessels scored and got fouled by Drew Timme, the reigning WCC Player of the Year.
The UCU Pavilion crowd – unsurprisingly – gave an extremely high-decibel reaction to Wessels' bucket.
"I was like, 'Wow, this is insane,' " Wessels recalled after the Gaels' practice Tuesday. "I feel like I'm just always chasing that feeling and I know in these games, I'll get that feeling."
In that game three years ago, the Gaels enjoyed the feeling of overcoming an 11-point deficit to top the Zags 78-70 in overtime. SMC and Gonzaga, the teams that have dominated the WCC for the past two decades, meet for the first time this season Saturday night in Spokane.
"Good athletes, good competitors, like the toughest challenges," SMC head coach Randy Bennett said. "That's the enjoyment, being challenged in a really difficult environment."
Saint Mary's has won the past two regular-season WCC titles outright and it shared the 2022-23 regular-season championship with Gonzaga. Since the beginning of the 2000-01 season, either the Zags (22) or the Gaels (six) have topped the conference in the regular season; they've split three titles and Gonzaga shared the 2001-02 crown with Pepperdine.
Gonzaga beat Saint Mary's 58-51 in the conference-tournament title game last year. The Zags have won 13 of the past 17 conference-tournament titles. And you guessed it, the Gaels have grabbed the other four.
"We want to win championships," SMC sophomore guard Mikey Lewis said, "so this (game in Spokane) is one of the ones you've got to get done to be able to win a championship."
The Gaels (19-3, 8-1) trail No. 6 Gonzaga (21-1, 9-0) by a game in the conference standings. Last year, SMC took both regular-season meetings – and Lewis was a key contributor in each of the Gaels' victories.
He had a team-high 16 points in SMC's 62-58 thriller in Moraga, then poured in a team-high 18 points (going 5-for-7 from beyond the arc) in the Gaels' 74-67 decision in Spokane. That victory clinched the regular-season title for Saint Mary's.
"Celebrating in the locker room, having won the championship, was pretty special," Lewis said.
Wessels noted that when the Gaels have knocked off Gonzaga in recent seasons, they typically have owned a large advantage on the boards. For example, in their wins last season, the Gaels outrebounded the Zags 40-34 and 39-26.
"You've got to find ways where you can separate yourself" from the opponent, Wessels said, "and that's definitely going to be a thing where we go into that game, we've got to hammer them on the glass."
Saint Mary's leads the conference in rebounding margin this season at +11 per game. Gonzaga ranks second at +10.5 per game, but Braden Huff is out with a knee injury and fellow forward Graham Ike has missed the past three games and is questionable for Saturday night.
In the Zags' most recent game, a 68-66 win over visiting USF last Saturday night, starting center Ismaila Diagne logged only eight minutes. Of the other eight Zags who played against the Dons, seven are listed as guards with Emmanuel Innocenti listed as a forward. None of those other eight players is taller than 6-foot-7.
Might Bennett be tempted to use Wessels (7-1) and Andrew McKeever (7-3) together to accentuate the Gaels' size edge?
"It all depends," Bennett said. "If you play with two bigs and you win the matchup when they play one big and four guards, you might roll with it. You've just got to figure that out. You've got to make a good evaluation."
Another key for the Gaels will be limiting turnovers. Gonzaga forces 15 per game. SMC had trouble with giveaways early in the season but has improved in that area. For the season, the Gaels are committing an average of 11.2 per game.
"Be strong with the ball," is advice Bennett has for his players. The Zags "really play the ball hard. You've got to be strong. You're going to get fouled sometimes and they're not going to call 'em all. So, you've just got to hang onto the ball."
With Gonzaga moving to the reconstituted Pac-12 next season, Saturday's game could be SMC's last one in the McCarthey Athletic Center for quite some time. Bennett believes there's a decent chance the Gaels and Zags will play each other in nonconference games, but he will miss the two – and often three – meetings between the teams each season.
Bennett and Gonzaga head coach Mark Few have known each other since the late 1980s, when Bennett was an assistant coach at the University of San Diego and Few an assistant with Gonzaga. Each man is 63 years old.
"It's our life. It's what we've been doing for the last 40 years," Bennett said. "We hung in there long enough and we've been blessed and it's worked out for us. There's a lot of respect coming from me to him."
It's a pretty safe bet to say there's a lot of respect coming from Mark Few to Randy Bennett as well. And their players have benefited from the programs each man has built – especially in the rivalry games.
"When we play them, it's always a dogfight," Wessels said. "I just feel like every time we play them, it's super physical. It's super intense." He added that matchups against the Zags are "those games that you live for, why you've love being a player."
Steve Kroner has covered Bay Area sports for more than four decades, mainly at KPIX-TV (Channel 5) and the San Francisco Chronicle. He is in his second season working as an analyst alongside Brian Brownfield on SMC men's basketball telecasts on ESPN+.
The UCU Pavilion crowd – unsurprisingly – gave an extremely high-decibel reaction to Wessels' bucket.
"I was like, 'Wow, this is insane,' " Wessels recalled after the Gaels' practice Tuesday. "I feel like I'm just always chasing that feeling and I know in these games, I'll get that feeling."
In that game three years ago, the Gaels enjoyed the feeling of overcoming an 11-point deficit to top the Zags 78-70 in overtime. SMC and Gonzaga, the teams that have dominated the WCC for the past two decades, meet for the first time this season Saturday night in Spokane.
"Good athletes, good competitors, like the toughest challenges," SMC head coach Randy Bennett said. "That's the enjoyment, being challenged in a really difficult environment."
Saint Mary's has won the past two regular-season WCC titles outright and it shared the 2022-23 regular-season championship with Gonzaga. Since the beginning of the 2000-01 season, either the Zags (22) or the Gaels (six) have topped the conference in the regular season; they've split three titles and Gonzaga shared the 2001-02 crown with Pepperdine.
Gonzaga beat Saint Mary's 58-51 in the conference-tournament title game last year. The Zags have won 13 of the past 17 conference-tournament titles. And you guessed it, the Gaels have grabbed the other four.
"We want to win championships," SMC sophomore guard Mikey Lewis said, "so this (game in Spokane) is one of the ones you've got to get done to be able to win a championship."
The Gaels (19-3, 8-1) trail No. 6 Gonzaga (21-1, 9-0) by a game in the conference standings. Last year, SMC took both regular-season meetings – and Lewis was a key contributor in each of the Gaels' victories.
He had a team-high 16 points in SMC's 62-58 thriller in Moraga, then poured in a team-high 18 points (going 5-for-7 from beyond the arc) in the Gaels' 74-67 decision in Spokane. That victory clinched the regular-season title for Saint Mary's.
"Celebrating in the locker room, having won the championship, was pretty special," Lewis said.
Wessels noted that when the Gaels have knocked off Gonzaga in recent seasons, they typically have owned a large advantage on the boards. For example, in their wins last season, the Gaels outrebounded the Zags 40-34 and 39-26.
"You've got to find ways where you can separate yourself" from the opponent, Wessels said, "and that's definitely going to be a thing where we go into that game, we've got to hammer them on the glass."
Saint Mary's leads the conference in rebounding margin this season at +11 per game. Gonzaga ranks second at +10.5 per game, but Braden Huff is out with a knee injury and fellow forward Graham Ike has missed the past three games and is questionable for Saturday night.
In the Zags' most recent game, a 68-66 win over visiting USF last Saturday night, starting center Ismaila Diagne logged only eight minutes. Of the other eight Zags who played against the Dons, seven are listed as guards with Emmanuel Innocenti listed as a forward. None of those other eight players is taller than 6-foot-7.
Might Bennett be tempted to use Wessels (7-1) and Andrew McKeever (7-3) together to accentuate the Gaels' size edge?
"It all depends," Bennett said. "If you play with two bigs and you win the matchup when they play one big and four guards, you might roll with it. You've just got to figure that out. You've got to make a good evaluation."
Another key for the Gaels will be limiting turnovers. Gonzaga forces 15 per game. SMC had trouble with giveaways early in the season but has improved in that area. For the season, the Gaels are committing an average of 11.2 per game.
"Be strong with the ball," is advice Bennett has for his players. The Zags "really play the ball hard. You've got to be strong. You're going to get fouled sometimes and they're not going to call 'em all. So, you've just got to hang onto the ball."
With Gonzaga moving to the reconstituted Pac-12 next season, Saturday's game could be SMC's last one in the McCarthey Athletic Center for quite some time. Bennett believes there's a decent chance the Gaels and Zags will play each other in nonconference games, but he will miss the two – and often three – meetings between the teams each season.
Bennett and Gonzaga head coach Mark Few have known each other since the late 1980s, when Bennett was an assistant coach at the University of San Diego and Few an assistant with Gonzaga. Each man is 63 years old.
"It's our life. It's what we've been doing for the last 40 years," Bennett said. "We hung in there long enough and we've been blessed and it's worked out for us. There's a lot of respect coming from me to him."
It's a pretty safe bet to say there's a lot of respect coming from Mark Few to Randy Bennett as well. And their players have benefited from the programs each man has built – especially in the rivalry games.
"When we play them, it's always a dogfight," Wessels said. "I just feel like every time we play them, it's super physical. It's super intense." He added that matchups against the Zags are "those games that you live for, why you've love being a player."
Steve Kroner has covered Bay Area sports for more than four decades, mainly at KPIX-TV (Channel 5) and the San Francisco Chronicle. He is in his second season working as an analyst alongside Brian Brownfield on SMC men's basketball telecasts on ESPN+.
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