Saint Mary’s is ranked in the Associated Press poll for the first time all season.
The No. 23 Gaels now turn their focus to continuing their domination of Loyola Marymount when the two West Coast Conference schools meet Thursday night in Los Angeles.
Saint Mary’s (25-4, 15-1) recorded an 81-56 home victory over the Lions on Jan. 7 to mark its 35th win in the past 37 meetings between the schools.
But Loyola Marymount (16-13, 8-9) just needs to look back two years to find an upset victory as it recovered from a 16-point deficit to notch a 78-74 overtime win over the then-No. 15 Gaels.
“Hank’s House,” dubbed for the late Hank Gathers, was rocking as the Lions halted a 21-game losing streak against Saint Mary’s.
The Gaels enter this contest as the outright WCC regular-season champion for the second straight season, the first time the school has notched that achievement. Saint Mary’s will be the No. 1 seed for the upcoming WCC tournament.
The Gaels clinched the title with a 74-67 victory over Gonzaga on Saturday at Spokane, Wash. It was the school’s first regular-season sweep of Gonzaga since the 2015-16 season.
“Any time you can win a championship, it’s great,” Gaels coach Randy Bennett said afterward. “The fact it happened here is just how it worked out.”
Mikey Lewis was the standout against Gonzaga by matching his season best of five 3-pointers while scoring 18 points.
Lewis has reached double figures in points in back-to-back games after scoring in single digits eight times in a nine-game span.
“Impressive. Gonzaga is the toughest place in the West to play,” Bennett said of Lewis’ outing. “… He answered the call — and then some.”
Saint Mary’s, which is 8-1 on the road, has won five consecutive games overall and 15 of its past 16. The Gaels will close the regular season on Saturday against visiting Oregon State.
Loyola Marymount will play its regular-season finale on Thursday.
The Lions are coming off a 93-82 home victory over Pepperdine on Saturday after losing five of their previous six games.
Loyola Marymount shot 51.5 percent from the field and was a solid 13 of 28 from 3-point range.
“It’s good to be back on the right side of the win-loss column,” Lions coach Stan Johnson said. “It always helps to make some shots.”
Alex Merkviladze was 4 of 6 from behind the arc while scoring 21 points and also went over the 1,000-point mark at the school. He has 1,019 points during four seasons at Loyola Marymount after transferring from Cal State Northridge.
Will Johnson added 19 points and Jevon Porter 16 for the Lions.
“We’re a team that has to get better at handling adversity and get better at handling success,” Johnson said.
Caleb Stone-Carrawell leads Loyola Marymount with a 13.5 scoring average. Porter averages 12.5 points and a team-leading 7.4 rebounds, Johnston checks in at 11.6 points per outing, and Merkviladze averages 10.6 points and 6.5 rebounds.
Stone-Carrawell scored 16 points when the Lions lost to Saint Mary’s last month. The Gaels were led by Augustas Marciulionis’ 23 points.
Marciulionis leads the Gaels in scoring (14.2), assists (6.2) and steals (42 total). Paulius Murauskas is averaging 12.8 points and a team-high 8.1 rebounds, while Mitchell Saxen averages 10.6 points and 7.9 rebounds and leads the squad with 38 blocked shots.
–Field Level Media
