No. 6 Gonzaga wary of Saint Mary's as WCC rivalry winds down

The rivalry between Saint Mary's and No. 6 Gonzaga has been one of the most intense in the nation over the past two decades.

However, yearly multiple meetings are about to become a thing of the past with the Bulldogs moving into the Pac-12 next season. The first of this season's two West Coast Conference regular-season meetings is Saturday night at Spokane, Wash.

Gonzaga has won 27 of the past 37 meetings, but that stretch includes the Bulldogs dropping six of the past 11 matchups. Gonzaga definitely would like to perform a bit better against the Gaels than it did last season.

The teams played three times in 2024-25, with Saint Mary's winning both regular-season meetings before Gonzaga beat the Gaels in the WCC tournament championship game.

The Bulldogs (21-1, 9-0 WCC) have won 14 consecutive games, but coach Mark Few is expecting another tussle with Saint Mary's.

"They're just really, really, really solid," Few said Thursday. "They do not beat themselves. They almost always stay between you and the baskets. You have to make shots over the top of them. It sounds simple, but they're really, really solid there.

"They're always a great rebounding team, and then you're just going to face a lot of middle pick-and-roll and post-ups by their bigs."

The Gaels (19-3, 8-1) also will pack plenty of confidence as they look to win in Spokane for a third straight season for just the second time in the history of the series. Saint Mary's won three straight at Gonzaga from 1988-1990. The teams first met in the 1971-72 season prior to becoming WCC combatants.

Saint Mary's is looking to clinch its 18th 20-win campaign in the past 19 seasons. The lone time the Gaels missed during the stretch was the abbreviated 2020-21 season that was plagued by COVID-19.

The Gaels have yet to be nationally ranked in a season in which coach Randy Bennett had to do some reloading. Saint Mary's fell on neutral courts against then-No. 24 Vanderbilt and Boise State and dropped a road game against WCC rival Santa Clara 63-54 on Jan. 17.

Bennett has been pleased with the progress from the beginning of the campaign.

"Guys are growing up. Our young guys are growing up," Bennett told the WCC Insider podcast. "We've kind of established our roles and rotations, which I mean in years past, it's been in place earlier in the season, and this, we're just kind of getting to it now, but they've done a good job."

Saint Mary's is led by Paulius Murauskas, who leads the WCC with a 19.3 scoring average. The 6-foot-8 Lithuanian also leads the Gaels in rebounding (7.5 per game), the third-best mark in the WCC.

"He grabbed the reins," Bennett said. "I'm proud of him for it. He's got to keep improving and finish the race."

Murauskas had 24 points and nine rebounds last Saturday when Saint Mary's posted a 75-69 road win against Portland.

Few is greatly concerned about Murauskas, but the Zags are about to get star big man Graham Ike (ankle) back after a three-game absence. Ike leads the club in scoring (18.1 ppg) and ranks second in the WCC in rebounding (8.8 rpg).

"He looks good to me," Few said of Ike. "He's practiced the last couple of days, so he's back to moving around."

The Gaels' Andrew McKeever tops the WCC in rebounding at 9.4 boards per game.

Gonzaga remains without standout forward Braden Huff (knee), and not having either of its two stars almost cost the Bulldogs last Saturday.

Gonzaga led by 10 points with 1:45 left against San Francisco and narrowly escaped with a 68-66 home victory when a 3-point attempt by the Dons' Junjie Wang bounced off the backboard and then the rim with less than two seconds left.

--Field Level Media