Three for three: Liam Campbell was perfect from beyond the arc and chipped in 15 points overall. / Photo by Tod Fierner for SMC Athletics
Gaels Limit Aggies to Season-Low 63 Points but Fall in NCAA Tournament
While round one was a tough result, the Gaels still claim four West Coast Conference Titles and five NCAA Tournaments in a row. And Randy Bennett is named NABC Pacific District Coach of the Year and Paulius Murauskas First Team All-Pacific District.
The Saint Mary’s Men's Basketball Team saw a remarkable season come to an end on Thursday evening in Oklahoma City. The No. 7 seeded Gaels fell in their NCAA Tournament clash with No. 10 seeded Texas A&M, 63–50. While the Gaels put up a strong defensive effort against the explosive Aggies, they couldn’t quite land the blows they needed to offensively.
It’s fair to say the loss stung. But Saint Mary’s finishes with a 27–6 overall record, marking the sixth consecutive season of 26 or more wins, excluding the 2020–21 shortened 24-game campaign. The Gaels also earned their fourth consecutive West Coast Conference Regular Season Title. And they earned their fifth invitation in a row to the NCAA Tournament—every time as a single seed.
In the showdown in Oklahoma City, sophomore point guard Joshua Dent led all Gaels with 18 points in what was his third career NCAA Tournament game but his first playing more than just a minute of action. The Wollongong, Australia native was 7–14 from the field, and buried four threes to go along with a team-high four assists. In his NCAA Tournament debut, redshirt freshman Liam Campbell provided a spark off the bench for SMC, scoring 15 on 5–7 shooting and a perfect 3–3 clip from beyond the arc. Dillan Shaw, another freshman competing in March Madness for the first time, chipped in eight points, with six rebounds and a pair of steals.
How It Happened
Texas A&M, which ranks among the top 10 offenses in the country, got out to an early lead, but the Gaels hung tough throughout the first half, using the three-ball to cut into an early deficit. With 4:54 remaining, back-to-back threes from Mikey Lewis and Joshua Dent brought the score to 23–22. The Aggies found their stroke in the final four minutes and change of the frame, though, and took a 37–-26 lead into the break. Saint Mary’s shot a strong 6–13 clip from beyond the arc, with Dent and Liam Campbell each canning a pair.
Saint Mary’s ramped up the defensive intensity in the second half, limiting the Aggies to just 26 points, their second-lowest tally in a half all season. Unfortunately, the Gaels’ offense couldn’t match; timely threes got the Gaels to as close as 12 points at the 7:41 mark, but the deficit ultimately settled on 13 points, 63–50.
Along the way, the Gaels were bedeviled by turnovers, giving up 18, and struggled on the boards as well as offensively. Head Coach Randy Bennett surmised afterward, “That’s too many things. You can’t give up those three areas and expect to play well and win.”
In talking to the press afterward, Joshua Dent was clear-eyed about the Gaels’ struggle to get the ball over half court. And Liam Campbell touched on the turnovers and how those gave the Aggies momentum. “We couldn’t get it done tonight,” Campbell said, but the team was proud to have had “the season we had…This wasn’t the way we want to end our season, but overall, I’m just proud of how we competed every game.”
Where the Gaels Did Well
The Gaels did show off their defensive prowess against one of the top offenses in the country, limiting Texas A&M (87.7 PPG entering tonight) to just 63 points. The 63 points scored by the Aggies tied for their fewest points scored in a game this season.
While it wasn’t enough, Saint Mary’s did continue to shoot the three ball well, hitting better than 40% (43.5%) for the 17th time this year, and making double-digit triples for the 11th time this season. Prior to Thursday, the Gaels had gone unbeaten when making 10+ threes and shooting 40% or better from deep. For Liam Campbell, hitting three triples on three attempts is a first. He finishes the season with a 52% three point clip, good for fourth best in program history.
Over the last four seasons, the Gaels have won 109 games, good for second most in program history over a four year stretch. While Randy Bennett was characteristically frank in his assessment afterward, he didn’t want anyone to lose sight of what the team had accomplished. “For our team to go 27–4 in the regular season and win the league for the fourth year in a row, I couldn't be more proud,” Bennett said.
NABC Honors for Paulius Musauskas and Randy Bennett
On the eve of the Gaels’ NCAA Tournament play, the National Association of Basketball Coaches named Paulius Murauskas as a first team member of their All-Pacific District team, and they named Randy Bennett the Pacific District Coach of the Year. The All-District honors are voted on by NABC-member coaches across NCAA Division I.
Murauskas scored 606 points in his second year with the Gaels. The junior out of Kaunas, Lithuania scored in double figures in 30 of 32 contests in the 2025–26 season, and leads the WCC in points scored, as well as free throws made and attempted. He twice scored 30+ points in a game this season, and surpassed 1,000 points as both a collegian (three years) and as a Gael (two years) this season. Murauskas also earned first-team All-WCC honors for the second time in his career this year.
Year 25 for Head Coach Randy Bennett was yet another rousing success for the Gaels, as they once again proved to be top dogs in the West Coast Conference with their fourth straight conference regular season title. This is the longest active regular-season conference title streak in all of NCAA DI men’s basketball.
Bennett has amassed at least 25 wins in each of the last six seasons (COVID-19 shortened 24 game 2020-21 season excluded), and has led his team to their fifth consecutive NCAA Tournament—a record for the program. He is the fifth longest active tenured coach at one school in DI basketball.
