The Saint Mary’s men (18-3, 8-0 WCC) maintain a two-game lead in the loss column over the rest of the conference after rallying from a 10-point second-half deficit for an 80-75 victory over Washington State in their first-ever visit to Pullman, stretching their road winning streak to 14 games — best in all of Division I.
 
— The Gonzaga women (13-8, 8-2), who began WCC play at 1-2, moved into sole possession of first place after posting their seventh straight win, an 81-53 victory at Pepperdine. Santa Clara’s 74-67 overtime conquest of Saint Mary’s knocked the Gaels out of the first-place tie.
 
— Portland’s Max Mackinnon, a junior guard from Brisbane, Australia, tied the program’s single-game scoring record with a 43-point outburst in the Pilots’ 92-82 win over San Diego. He shares the top spot with Matt Houle, who put up 43 vs. San Francisco back on Feb. 19, 1992. His point total matches the most by a WCC player since Santa Clara’s Jared Brownridge scored 44 vs. Arizona on Nov. 26, 2015.
 
CHECKING IN WITH THE NET COMPUTER: After winning its eighth straight game to open WCC play, Saint Mary’s climbed two more spots to No. 23 in Sunday morning’s update NCAA NET computer rankings. Gonzaga, which slipped a bit last week after losing twice, ascended three spots to No. 15.
 
Oregon State moved up from No. 60 to 54, while Santa Clara (No. 61), San Francisco (74) and Washington State (87) also remain relevant in the rankings.
 
LAST WEEK’S BIG THING: Gonzaga senior forward Ben Gregg, in Saturday’s game at Portland near his hometown of Clackamas, Ore., shot 10-for-10 from the field to score 24 points in just 20 minutes in the Zags’ 105-62 triumph. He made all four of his 3-point tries and became the first player in coach Mark Few’s 26 seasons to make 10 shots without a miss. He is just the ninth WCC player to achieve that level of shooting perfection in a game.
 
THIS WEEK’S BIG THING: It’s typically the biggest men’s matchup every season in the WCC and this year is no different. Saint Mary’s (18-3, 8-0 WCC) and Gonzaga (15-6, 6-2) will clash for the first time this season on Saturday at 8 p.m. in Moraga. If you can’t get a ticket for what is sure to be a sellout, the game will be televised on ESPN. This is the 64th all-time meeting between Gonzaga coach Mark Few and the Gaels’ Randy Bennett since 2001-02. The teams, which are 4-4 in their past eight meetings, will meet again on Saturday, Feb. 22 at Spokane.
 
THIS WEEK’S BIG THING, PART 2: In a showdown of women’s teams tied for second in the WCC, Saint Mary’s (11-8, 7-3) visits Portland (18-3, 7-3) in a 6 p.m. game Thursday that will be aired on ESPN+. The teams split two matchups a year ago after the Pilots had won eight in a row in the series. They will meet again in Moraga on Feb. 13.
 
LMU’S EVANS FLIRTS WITH HISTORY: Naudia Evans etched her name in LMU record book with a 37-point performance that ranks No. 2 in program annals, sparking a 79-76 win over Washington State. A graduate transfer from Grand Canyon, Evans delivered the Lions’ highest-scoring game in nearly a quarter-century, since Rosa Bernasconi set the school record with 39 points against Gonzaga on Feb. 5, 2000.
 
TRIPLE-DOUBLE MAGIC: Washington State sophomore guard LeJuan Watts recorded just the second triple-double in program history, assembling 20 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists in the Cougars’ 93-65 defeat to Santa Clara. He joins ex-WSU star Kyle Weaver, who logged a triple-double against Stanford on Jan. 13, 2007. Watts is just the eighth WCC player to register one.
 
GAELS WIN WITH OFFENSE: Traditionally one of the toughest defensive teams in the WCC, Saint Mary’s opened conference play by limiting their first seven opponents to 53.1 points per game. In their 71-51 win over USF on Thursday, the Gaels held the Dons to a season-low scoring total (26 points below their average), allowed them to shoot just 27 percent from the field and kept WCC scoring leader Malik Thomas under wraps, giving him just eight points on uncharacteristic 1-for-12 shooting.
 
But in their visit to Washington State on Saturday, the Gaels needed their offense to deliver in an 80-75 victory. The Cougars matched the highest point total Saint Mary’s has surrendered this season, but the Gaels shot 58 percent from the field and got a huge game from junior forward Paulius Murauskas, who had 25 points and 12 rebounds.
 
Murauskas, a transfer from Arizona, leads the WCC in rebounding (8.7) and double-doubles (9). 
 
FEW SHAKES THINGS UP: On the heels of back-to-back losses the week before, Gonzaga coach Mark Few made lineup changes before the Zags’ 105-62 win at Portland on Saturday. All-WCC forward Graham Ike, who had started all 55 previous games in his Gonzaga career, came off the bench. So did Khalif Battle, who had started every game this season.
 
“I liked our spirit, our approach, our teamness,” he told the Spokane Spokesman Review. “We did a really nice job defensively for long stretches. That’s kind of what we worked on this week. Offensively, we had good flow, good diversity. We posted up, we hit 3s, we came off screens well. We had 31 assists, which was incredible. All good. Great response after what we’ve been through here the last week.”
 
Michael Ajayi, who scored a season-high 20 points and grabbed eight rebounds in 20 minutes off the bench, credited point guard Ryan Nembhard for pulling the team together.
 
“Ryan was like, ‘Hey man, ain’t no more talking, just action.’ That’s what we did,” Ajayi said. “We felt the pain we had during that loss (last week to Santa Clara). We don’t want to feel like that ever again. Shoutout to Ryan.”
 
Ike played 16 minutes off the bench and gave the Zags 14 points, three rebounds, four assists, two steals and a blocked shot.
 
NEMBHARD’S NUMBERS: With 13 assists — his 13th game this season with at least 10 — Nembhard became the first player in the country to reach 200 assists. He has 207 and leads Division with 9.86 per game. His 4.40 assist-to-turnover ratio is third-best in the country.
 
RATAJ REMAINS RED-HOT: Oregon State junior forward Michael Rataj scored a career-high 30 points on Saturday as the Beavers (16-6, 6-3) took down Santa Clara 83-69 for their ninth straight home victory to climb into a tie for fourth place in the WCC, just one-half game out of a share of second.
 
Rataj, who scored 29 points to spark OSU’s home upset of Gonzaga the week before, has totaled 99 points the past four games. The Augsburg, Germany native was 10-for-10 from the free throw line as the Beavers converted 21 of 22 foul shots.
 
FOUR IN A ROW FOR PACIFIC WOMEN: Senior guard Anaya James continued her offensive success against Oregon State, scoring 24 points as Pacific (11-10, 7-4) claimed a 67-66 overtime victory on Saturday for its fourth straight victory. She had 13 points in the fourth quarter and is averaging 25.7 points in three career games against the Beavers.
 
The victory was the 136th for coach Bradley Davis, moving him to No. 2 in program history, just four wins shy of Melissa Taketa. 
 
Liz Smith got the Tigers over the hump by converting a go-ahead free throw with 4 seconds left in overtime before Sydney Ward blocked a shot by OSU’s Kelsey Rees at the buzzer.
 
Smith had 13 points and three more steals, giving her 15 over the past three games and 55 for the season. She leads the WCC with 2.62 thefts per outing.