It has been a season of firsts for the Saint Mary’s men’s basketball team.
The Gaels clinched their first back-to-back West Coast Conference regular-season titles in program history with a 74-67 win over Gonzaga on Saturday. It’s the first time Saint Mary’s has swept Gonzaga in the regular season since 2015-16.
The Gaels will try to add one more first to the list with their first back-to-back WCC Tournament titles since the conference started holding a tournament in 1987. St. Mary’s snapped Gonzaga’s streak of seven straight regular season titles last season and beat the Bulldogs in the tournament’s championship game.
Another successful tournament run begins with ending the regular season on a high note. The Gaels travel to Loyola Marymount tonight and wrap up the regular season at home against Oregon State on Saturday.
St. Mary’s (25-4, 15-1 WCC) has won five straight heading into tonight’s game at Gersten Pavilion in Los Angeles. The Gaels rank No. 6 in the WCC with 74.8 points a game, but they’re giving up just 60.9, which leads the conference and ranks No. 5 in the country.
Loyola Marymount (16-13, 8-9) has lost five of its past seven games, but the Lions snapped a three-game losing streak with a 93-82 win over Pepperdine on Saturday.
Saint Mary’s at Loyola Marymount Odds
Saint Mary’s is a 13.5-point college basketball betting odds favorite on BetMGM, and the Over/Under is 132.5 points.
The Moneyline is -1400 for St. Mary’s and +775 for Loyola Marymount.
Saint Mary’s at Loyola Marymount on TV
The West Coast Conference game featuring St. Mary’s and Loyola Marymount will be televised on CBS Sports Network.
Tip-off is scheduled for 11 p.m. ET.
Saint Mary’s at Loyola Marymount Prediction
I predict St. Mary’s wins, 82-70.
The Gaels play impeccable defense and do just enough on offense to win games, but their real strength shows through on the glass. The WCC’s top two rebounding teams met when St. Mary’s beat Gonzaga on Saturday, and the Gaels pulled down 13 more boards and scored seven more second-chance points than the Bulldogs.
St. Mary’s leads the WCC with 39.4 rebounds a game. The Gaels will be hard to beat in the postseason if they can continue dominating the boards and shutting offenses down the way they have recently.
St. Mary’s is home to the WCC’s top two rebounders. Paulius Murauskas leads the conference with 8.1 rebounds a game, and Mitchell Saxen, who just tied the program record after playing in his 150th career game, ranks No. 2 in the league with 7.9 rebounds a night.
Loyola Marymount ranks last in the 11-team WCC with 33.6 rebounds a game. Caleb Stone-Carrawell leads the Lions with 13.5 points a game. Jevon Porter is adding 12.5 points and 7.4 rebounds.
