MBB | Gaels Fall in Tightly Contested Semifinal Bout to Santa Clara, 76-71

Monday, March 9

Las Vegas, NV

8:30 PM

Saint Mary's College of California

27-5,16-2WCC

Santa Clara

26-7,15-3WCC

Santa Clara

Saint Mary's (CA)

Paulius Murauskas: 26 pts (9-15 FG, 6-6 FT) 8 reb

Photo by: Saint Mary's Athletics / Tod Fierner

MBB | Gaels Fall in Tightly Contested Semifinal Bout to Santa Clara, 76-71

3/10/2026 12:47:00 AM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Highlights

LAS VEGAS — In a game that featured six ties and 14 lead changes, the Santa Clara Broncos narrowly outlasted the Saint Mary's Gaels in Monday evening's West Coast Conference Semifinal Clash. Neither team led by more than seven points in this one, with the game buoying back and forth with one possession leads for most of the final 5+ minutes.

Paulius Murauskas led all scorers with a whopping 26 points to go along with eight boards. Murauskas was a stellar 9-15 from the field, and buried all six of his free throw attempts, trying to will the Gaels ahead in this one. Mikey Lewis also surpassed 20 points, dropping 23 and canning half of the Gaels six made threes. Rounding out the double digit scorers for the Gaels was Andrew McKeever, who logged a double-double off the bench with 11 points and 11 boards.

HOW IT HAPPENED
The Gaels took their first lead of this game with 8:22 remaining in the first as part of a 12-2 run. They would not relinquish that throughout the remainder of the frame, extending it to as large as six points. A Joshua Dent bucket jumper at the buzzer would send the game into halftime with the Gaels ahead 35-32.

Saint Mary's extended their lead back out to five five minutes into the second stanza, but Santa Clara refused to allow the Gaels to pull away. With 6:38 remaining, the Broncos hit their largest lead of the game, at 64-57, but this prompted an immediate Gael surge, as a 12-4 run sparked by Mikey Lewis and Paulius Murauskas would give Saint Mary's a one point lead with 2:38 to play. Unfortunately, the Broncos would drain a pair of timely, contested three pointers down the stretch to salt away the 76-71 win.

GAME NOTES

With his 26 point outpouring tonight, Paulius Murauskas became the first Gael since Jordan Ford to score 600+ points in a season. Ford accomplished this feat twice, in 2018-19 and in 2019-20.
Mikey Lewis ran his double-digit scoring streak to nine straight games, and his consecutive 20+ point scoring streak to three games in a row, both adding to his career marks.
Lewis also drained all four free throw attempts tonight, moving his career percentage to 84.4% from the stripe, good for fifth best in program history.
Andrew McKeever logged his eighth double-double of the season, breaking a tie with Paulius Murauskas for the team lead in that category.
The Gaels finished +10 on the glass tonight. This was just the third time this season that the Gaels have out-rebounded an opponent and lost, and the first time that they've out-rebounded an opponent by double-digits and lost.