The low point came on Dec. 1 at Idaho Falls, Idaho. Saint Mary’s had just lost to Boise State by 17 points and was mired at 3-5 after the first month of the season.
No one then could possibly have imagined what the Gaels did on Tuesday night, posting a 69-60 victory over rival Gonzaga — a team that beat them 10 days earlier — to capture the Credit Union I West Coast Conference Men’s Basketball Championship at Orleans Arena.
Except, the Gaels imagined it.
“It was dark when we were 3-5, but I always believed I came back for a reason,” said fifth-year senior Alex Ducas. “I came back to lead these guys to a championship. I always envisioned it. It’s not a surprise to me, but man, it feels good.”
The 21st-ranked Gaels (26-7) have won 23 of 25 games since then, capturing the WCC regular-season title outright and now coupling that with the conference tournament crown, a pairing Saint Mary’s hadn’t achieved since 2012. Tuesday night’s win got them a 2-1 edge in the season series after No. 17 Gonzaga (25-7) beat them in Moraga, preventing the Gaels from completing a perfect WCC run.
Head coach Randy Bennett, whose program most recently won the WCC championship five years ago and will now take his 10th team into the NCAA Tournament, said he and his staff had to believe before they could convince their players it was possible.
“The sky wasn’t falling. We had good players, that’s why we were picked to win the league,” he said. “But our good players weren’t good yet. We told ‘em, `You’ve got to have hope, fellas. You can still do this.’ “
Reflecting back on that post-game experience at Idaho Falls, junior point guard Augustas Marciulionis said of Tuesday’s triumph, “It means a lot. To win with this group of guys when we had some struggles early in the season, it’s an amazing thing. It makes it even sweeter, just the fact that we remember that locker room early in the year and how it is now.”
Bennett said he’s never had a player make the year-to-year improvement Marciulionis achieved, going from primarily a backup player who averaged 5.9 points in 2023 to 204 WCC Player of the Year and now the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player. The only other Saint Mary’s player to win both of those awards was Matthew Dellavedova in 2012.
The son of Sarunas Marciulionus, the NBA pioneer from Lithuania, Augustas delivered 13 points, eight assists, two steals, two blocked shots and no turnovers in 40 minutes against the Zags.
The Gaels also got a huge lift from sophomore guard Aidan Mahaney, who has gone through ups and downs after a splendid freshman season a year ago. He scored 23 points and Few called one of his five 3-pointers the key play in the game.
Three minutes after Gonzaga had taken its only lead of the game, the Gaels were up 55-52 when Luke Bennett missed a 3-point shot. The Zags nearly corralled the loose ball the lane but Mason Forbes ripped it away and delivered it to Mahaney, who drilled the 3-pointer from the left corner for a six-point lead with 4:57 to play.
“The ball went through our hands and they grabbed it. Mahaney got that 3 — that was a big,” Few said.
Mahaney gave all the credit to Forbes, who had four of the Gaels’ 12 offensive rebounds and scored eight points before taking a hard fall in the final minutes and leaving the game. “The ball’s in my hands and that (shot) was nothing,” Mahaney said. “For him to get us the ball was bigger than the shot itself.”
The Zags never got closer than four points the rest of the way.
The game promised to be physical, and the Gaels won that battle, outrebounding the Zags 39-22 and allowing them just five offensive rebounds. Senior big man Mitchel Saxen survived foul trouble to produce 19 points and 15 rebounds.
Praising Saxen, Gonzaga head coach Mark Few called it “a sumo wrestling match down there tonight. If that’s the case, he’s probably going to win — he’s the biggest, strongest, heaviest guy.”
Senior forward Anton Watson scored 18 points to lead Gonzaga, which is considered a sure thing to join Saint Mary’s in the NCAA Tournament. Point guard Ryan Nembhard added 13 points and 11 assists, while playing all 40 minutes. But All-WCC big man Graham Ike was on the floor for just 20 minutes due to foul trouble and had a quiet game with 10 points and five rebounds.
“Forbes and Saxen are great rebounders. We got pounded on the glass,” Watson said.
Above all else, the Gaels played the game on their terms. They rank second nationally in scoring defense and they held Gonzaga — which puts up nearly 86 points per game — to its lowest point total of the season.
“They slow the game down and make us really defend. Offensively, we couldn’t finish around the rim,” Watson said.
The Gaels also avoided the spate of turnovers that allowed Gonzaga to score 14 fastbreak points in their win last month. In this one, the Zags managed just four points in transition all night.
Both coaches sent compliments to the other side. “Tons and tons of respect for Saint Mary’s,” Few said. “They’re a tough, tough out, and physical and smart.”
As he has done before, Bennett said the Gaels are better because of Few’s program, which played in its 27th consecutive WCC tournament championship game.
“We beat a good team, a program we have a ton of respect for,” Bennett said. “Honestly, they’ve helped us become the program that we are because we were punching up for a long time, just trying to do what they were doing and be as good as they are, and it’s made us good.”