{"id":632647,"date":"2026-03-01T16:57:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T16:57:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/632647\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T16:57:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T16:57:15","slug":"saint-marys-wins-wcc-championship-share-by-beating-no-9-gonzaga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/632647\/","title":{"rendered":"Saint Mary’s wins WCC championship share by beating No. 9 Gonzaga"},"content":{"rendered":"

MORAGA \u2014 There was a lot to unpack after Saint Mary\u2019s beat No. 9 Gonzaga 70-59<\/a> in front of a deafening home crowd and national ESPN audience in their final regular-season meeting as West Coast Conference rivals.<\/p>\n

For coach Randy Bennett, one thing stood above all else. \u201cWe won the conference championship,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s a big deal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Four in a row, in fact. The Gaels and Zags shared the 2023 regular-season crown before Saint Mary\u2019s won outright titles back-to-back the next two seasons.<\/p>\n

This one seemed like a reach on Jan. 31, after the Zags beat the Gaels 73-65<\/a> at Spokane to generate a two-game lead on them in the standings. The WCC\u2019s heavyweight for a quarter-century, Gonzaga appeared on its way to an outright championship in its farewell season before joining the rebuilt Pac-12 next year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s a testament to the consistency of the program and coach Bennett,\u201d said sophomore guard Mikey Lewis, who scored a career-high 31 points on Saturday night. \u201cWinning four (titles) in a row is hard. We were two games back and we never said it out loud, but we knew to get back in this position we\u2019d have to win out.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Gaels didn\u2019t lose again, going 8-0 in February, including an 86-67 win over Santa Clara<\/a> on Wednesday that avenged an earlier defeat<\/a> and set up Saturday\u2019s showdown.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got a lot accomplished this week,\u201d Bennett acknowledged.<\/p>\n

\"SaintSaint Mary\u2019s guard Mikey Lewis (0) drives to the basket against Gonzaga guard Mario Saint-Supery, right, during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game in Moraga, Calif., Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026. (AP Photo\/Tony Avelar)<\/p>\n

The Gaels (27-4, 16-2) earned their first Quad 1 victory and completed an unblemished 17-0 home schedule, which stretched their ongoing program record to 26 consecutive victories at University Credit Union Pavilion. They improved their head-to-head record against the Zags to 6-5 over the past four seasons.<\/p>\n

Saint Mary\u2019s will be the No. 2 seed at the WCC tournament, which begins Thursday at Las Vegas. That gives the Gaels a bye through to the semifinals on Monday. Gonzaga (28-3, 16-2) is the No. 1 seed.<\/p>\n

Regardless of what happens at Orleans Arena, the Gaels are virtually assured of their fifth consecutive NCAA tournament bid. They were No. 22 in the NET computer rankings before the Gonzaga victory and sure to climb a few spots as a result.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels amazing,\u201d said Lewis, an Oakland native. \u201cThat was exhilarating. I mean, the atmosphere in there . . . obviously, winning makes it so much better. But that was some of the most fun I\u2019ve ever had playing basketball.\u201d<\/p>\n

Point guard Joshua Dent, who scored 14 points, got a sense of what the capacity crowd of 3,500 was ready to bring to the evening when Lewis buried a 3-pointer on the Gaels\u2019 first possession.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Mikey hit that corner 3, I thought my ears were about to start bleeding,\u201d the sophomore from Australia said. \u201cWhen we start making 3s and go on our little runs, this place is a jungle.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SaintSaint Mary\u2019s guard Joshua Dent (7) drives to the basket against Gonzaga guard Davis Fogle (4) during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game in Moraga, Calif., Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026. (AP Photo\/Tony Avelar)<\/p>\n

The Gaels trailed 36-29 at halftime, despite four 3-pointers and a career-high 12 points from Lithuanian freshman Mantas Juzenas, who averages just 1.7 points. \u201cHe kept us in it,\u201d Lewis said.<\/p>\n

Lewis led the second-half onslaught, scoring 21 points, including five of his seven 3-pointers. The Gaels shot 16 for 33 from the arc, outscoring the Zags 48-15 from deep.<\/p>\n

I think we\u2019re able to jump teams early in the second half and just make it hard for them,\u201d Dent said. \u201cWe get them to call early timeouts, we get the crowd involved and smash \u2018em on the rebounds.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ranked fifth nationally in rebound margin, the Gaels were on the short end of a 22-18 rebound count in the first half. They won the boards 24-15 over the final 20 minutes, outscoring the Zags 11-0 on second-chance points.<\/p>\n

The Gaels\u2019 defense also tightened up, with the tag-team center duo of Harry Wessels and Andrew McKeever limiting Zags star forward Graham Ike to four of his 17 points before he fouled out with 3:45 to play.<\/p>\n

The Gaels and Zags would meet again in the WCC tournament title game a week from Tuesday if they both win in the semifinals. Bennett would welcome one more duel with Zags coach Mark Few, their 72nd over 25 seasons.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love that game. You just don\u2019t get that many,\u201d Bennett said. \u201cIf you can be a part of that, it\u2019s special.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SaintSaint Mary\u2019s guard Mikey Lewis (0) celebrates with fans after a victory against Gonzaga in a NCAA college basketball game in Moraga, Calif., Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026. (AP Photo\/Tony Avelar)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MORAGA \u2014 There was a lot to unpack after Saint Mary\u2019s beat No. 9 Gonzaga 70-59 in front…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":632648,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3723],"tags":[7,217,325,231,772,1544,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-632647","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-college-basketball","10":"tag-college-sports","11":"tag-ncaa","12":"tag-ncaa-basketball","13":"tag-ncaab","14":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116154981089395496","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=632647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632647\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/632648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=632647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=632647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=632647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}