After a seven-day span in which West Coast Conference men’s basketball teams compiled a 19-3 win-loss record through Saturday, the league enters Week 3 of the college basketball season still with five unbeaten teams and five more with just a single defeat.
Among the unbeatens, No. 19 Gonzaga (4-0) overpowered No. 23 Creighton 90-63 and traveled to the desert to dispatch Arizona State. Saint Mary’s (4-0) stayed home and posted 30-point victories over Ohio and North Texas.
Santa Clara (4-0) trekked to Cincinnati to hand Xavier its worst non-conference home defeat in 14 seasons before getting career-high games from Christian Hammond (27 points) and Bukky Oboye (20 points, 7 blocks) while racking up 98 points in a home triumph over Nevada. And Oregon State (3-0) beat North Texas to continue its early-season trend of winning close ones — by margins of two, three and two points.
Then there is LMU (5-0), which won twice last week and is off to its best start since going 8-0 in 2018-19. The Lions traveled to Texas early the week, fell behind UTEP by four points at halftime, then outscored the Miners 37-20 in the second half, holding them to 23-percent shooting.
LMU returned home Friday to beat 2025 NCAA Tournament entry Troy 74-63 on the strength of a career-best 24 points from junior guard Jan Vide of Slovenia. Three players are fueling Lions’ attack that is producing a conference-best 89.2 points per game and winning by an average margin of 27.4 points: Junior guard Rodney Brown (16.2), Vide (15.2) and senior super-sub Myron “MJ” Amey (15.0).
The Lions will try to keep it going on Monday night when they visit UC Santa Barbara (3-0).
LAST WEEK’S BIG THING: Oregon State junior guard Josiah Lake II was at it again. After securing a 67-65 opening-night victory over North Dakota State by making the game-winning layup with two seconds to play, the second-generation OSU player outdid himself last Wednesday. He made free throws with three seconds left for a 64-all score against North Texas. Two seconds later, after a technical foul on the Mean Green for attempting to call a timeout when the team had none, Lake converted two more foul shots for the two-point triumph, capping a comeback from a 13-point deficit with barely seven minutes left. OSU visits rival Oregon on Monday night on FS1.
THIS WEEK’S BIG THING: Having matched their best start in 12 years, the Saint Mary’s women (5-0) visit Cal on Thursday for an 11:30 a.m. tipoff. The Gaels, beat UC Riverside 51-41 on the road Friday and Nevada 56-50 at home Sunday and lead the West Coast Conference in scoring defense, allowing just 45 points per game. They were sparked this week by Edie Clark, a sophomore forward from New Zealand, who contributed 20 points, 10 rebounds and 11 steals. Saint Mary’s is seeking its first victory vs. Cal in 10 years.
GRAHAM IKE’S NEW DIMENSION: Gonzaga senior forward Graham Ike, a preseason all-conference team selection, is best known for his low-post scoring and rebounding. Twenty double-doubles in his two-plus seasons with the Zags demonstrate those abilities.
Ike is determined to give opposing teams one more thing to worry about this season: His developing 3-point shot. They accounted for just 20 of his 460 baskets his first two seasons in Spokane, but he shot 4-for-4 from beyond the arc last week against Creighton, the first time he’d ever made more than two in a game.
“I missed my first four of the season, so I thought they’d probably sag a little more after watching the Oklahoma game. It felt good. We put in the work every day. Just have to trust and believe it’ll go in,” said Ike, who also boosted his career points total to 2,031, second-most among active players in the country, behind Indiana’s Tucker Devries (2,043).
FORGOTTEN GAEL SURFACES: Liam Campbell was the Idaho high school state player of the year when he arrived at Saint Mary’s two years. He sat out last season after foot surgery then scored just seven points in the team’s first two games this year. Against Ohio last week, he put up 17 first-half points and finished with 20, including three 3-pointers, in 20 minutes off the bench.
“Liam was outstanding,” Saint Mary’s head coach Randy Bennett said. “He took over the game. I was very impressed. I hadn’t seen it yet. That’s what he was in high school. But he’s become a good defender for us. Defender, rebounder, gritty all those things. I was just as surprised everyone else. Wow. Didn’t know that was coming.”
REDHAWKS’ ACCURATE ALASKAN: It almost seems like Seattle U senior guard Brayden Maldonado can’t miss a shot. The Anchorage, Alaska native pushed the Redhawks to a 3-1 record by scoring 22 points in an 83-74 win over Idaho State on Saturday that included making six straight free throws in the final 38 seconds.
On Wednesday, Maldonado made 10 of 11 shots from the field, including 4 of 5 from 3-point range, and scored 26 points in the Redhawks’ 94-67 win over Eastern Washington.
The conference’s leading scorer at 23.3 points per game, Maldonado leads the league in field goal accuracy (62.7 percent), is second from the 3-point arc (58.3 percent) and, at 15-for-15 from the foul line, is one of four players who have not missed a free throw attempt.
WHITTAKER’S DEBUT AT THE KENNEL: Gonzaga redshirt freshman Lauren Whittaker, a highly touted 6-foot-3 prospect from New Zealand, played her first game at the McCarthey Center on Thursday and couldn’t quite lift the Zags to victory against unbeaten Colorado State. But Whittaker delivered an impressive performance with 29 points, including 4-for-7 accuracy from the 3-point arc, and seven rebounds in the 70-66 loss that snapped the program’s streak of 22 consecutive victories in their home opener.
CRAZY NUMBERS OF THE WEEK: The Santa Clara women trailed Wyoming 11-8 before running off 26 consecutive points (scored by seven different players) for a 34-11 lead on the way to a 76-45 victory . . . Santa Clara’s men blocked 11 shots each vs. Xavier and Nevada and lead the conference at 8.0 per game . . . In their 107-26 win over Warner Pacific, the Portland women led 44-3 at end of the first quarter in which they held the visits without a field goal and forced 17 turnovers . . . In the first half of Saint Mary’s 80-49 win over North Texas, Gaels’ sophomore guard Mikey Lewis by himself outscored the Mean Green 18-17 in the first half. Lewis is 21 for 21 from the free throw line.