We’ve seen this movie before, but that doesn’t make it any less compelling. Yes, it’s Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s at the top of the West Coast Conference men’s basketball standings once more, with Saturday night’s clash in Moraga determining whether the Zags claim the outright regular-season title or the Gaels secure a share of the crown.
"As a Gael, obviously you live for these games,” Saint Mary’s senior center Harry Wessels said. “It’s going to be a good one.”
The 11th meeting in four years between the programs will tip off at 7:30 p.m. Saturday. The game, a sellout for weeks, will be available for the entire nation to watch on ESPN.
Ninth-ranked Gonzaga (28-2, 16-1) clinched at least a share of the crown with its 89-48 win over Portland on Wednesday night.
The Gaels (26-4, 15-2) earned a shot at securing a piece of a fourth straight regular-season title — unprecedented in program history — by pinning an 86-67 defeat on Bay Area rival Santa Clara (23-7, 14-3).
There are big games ahead for both, starting next week with the Credit Union 1 West Coast Conference Basketball Championship in Las Vegas, where Gonzaga has already secured the No. 1 seed. That event will determine the league’s automatic qualifier for the NCAA Tournament, although both teams are on solid footing at this point for an at-large bid.
For Saint Mary’s head coach Randy Bennett, the regular season championship has special value, even in an era where so many fans are focused on the NCAA Tournament.
“I would say it means the most,” he said. “It’s on our bucket list. We’ve won a few of them in a row now. That’s the standard. We have a chance to do that on Saturday. To me, it means more than winning the conference tournament. It’s hard to win the league. Real hard.”
The Gaels shared the regular season championship with Gonzaga in 2022-23, then won outright championships the past two seasons. Their resume over that span is impeccable: an ongoing 25-game home winning streak and a 61-6 ledger in regular-season conference games.
One of those six defeats was a 73-65 loss to the Zags in Spokane on Jan. 31. That leaves the two programs with a 5-5 head-to-head record over the past four seasons.
Gonzaga star forward Graham Ike, whose 19.8 scoring average leads the conference, relishes the prospect of sweeping both games from the Gaels. ”That would be amazing,” he told the Spokesman Review. “I know it would mean a lot to this university and us and that would be a great way to end this regular season slate, so we've got to make sure that gets done."
The coaches and programs know each other well. Bennett and Gonzaga’s Mark Few will square off for the 71st time since the 2001-02 season when Bennett came on board at Saint Mary’s.
Between them, they have been perennial residents on the penthouse floor of the conference standings. The Zags and Gaels will finish as the top two teams in the regular season for the 21st time in 23 seasons, with one of them either winning or sharing the crown for a 26th year in a row.
The Gaels packed the 3,500-seat UCU Pavilion on Wednesday night and Bennett anticipates another intense atmosphere. “It would be hard to be better than it was tonight,” he said. “There was a lot on the line. You could feel it.”
Saint Mary’s generally played well in Spokane, Bennett said, but came up short in the rebounding department, 36-31, for the only time all season. The Gaels are fifth nationally in rebounding margin at plus-11.5 after a dominant performance against the Broncos.
Saint Mary’s won the boards 51-21, turning 21 offensive rebounds into a 30-9 advantage in second-chance points. Broncos head coach Herb Sendek said the disparity was of “epic proportion” and was such that no other aspect of the game really mattered.
The Broncos defeated SMC 62-54 when the teams met on Jan. 17 at Santa Clara. The rematch, Sendek said, “was a game unlike any we’ve had this season in that regard. The game would have had a different texture if we were more competitive on the glass, but we were just annihilated in that area.”
Forwards Paulius Murauskas (16 points, 11 rebounds) and freshman Dillan Shaw (11 points, a career-best 14 rebounds) and 7-foot centers Wessels (10 points, 10 rebounds) and Andrew McKeever (6 points, 9 rebounds in 12 minutes off the bench) all had a hand in the rebounding onslaught.
“That’s kind of what we do. I just think the game brought that out of us,” Bennett said. “When you’re dialed in and ready to be in a war, you just go hard. They just knew how much was at stake.”
Both the Gaels and Zags are expecting the same level of effort and intensity in their rematch. Few said he wants his team to duplicate the tough and aggressive play it delivered in the game in Spokane.
"Especially on the glass and that's what you have to do against Saint Mary’s,” Few said. “You just have to really battle them, make every basket hard, but you've got to be tough on offense too because they're a heck of a defensive team.”
GONZAGA & LMU WOMEN TAKE AIM AT HISTORY: The Gonzaga and LMU women’s basketball teams can each achieve something special Saturday. They enter the final day of the regular season tied for the West Coast Conference lead, each at 14-3.
Either or both can win the regular season championship. For LMU (20-8 overall), a victory in its 1 p.m. road matchup vs. third-place Oregon State (21-9, 13-4) gets the Lions no worse than a share of the crown. Same for the Zags (22-8 overall), who visit Portland (16-13, 10-7) for a 5 p.m. ESPNU game.
Gonzaga is going for its 10th straight championship and 11th in 12 seasons under head coach Lisa Fortier. LMU, led by fifth-year head coach Aarika Hughes, puts an eight-game win streak on the line as it chases its first conference title since 2004-05. That was also the most recent season the Lions won 20 games and earned an NCAA Tournament berth.
Oregon State will need some help, but can force a three-way championship logjam if it beats LMU and Gonzaga loses. The Beavers regrouped nicely to win their past four games after a three-game losing streak opening February.