Career night: Joshua Dent scored 26, including half a dozen three pointers. / Photo by Tod Fierner for SMC Athletics
Trio of 20 Point Scorers Lead Gaels to 88–82 Win over Washington State
Joshua Dent drops 26. Paulius Murauskas, who came into the game as Oscar Robertson National Player of the Week, adds 24. Mikey Lewis scores 20. And Saint Mary’s splashes 14 threes.
Saint Mary’s Men’s Basketball 88–82 win over Washington State inside UCU Pavilion on Saturday afternoon was a special victory. It kept alive both the Gaels’ unbeaten status in West Coast Conference play as well for the season when it comes to home games. A trio of Gaels scored 20 points or more, and the team splashed a season-high 14 threes, leading them to their ninth 80+ scoring performance of the season.
Joshua Dent surpassed the 20 point mark for the fourth time in his career, dropping a career-high 26 points on 9–14 shooting and 6–9 shooting from beyond the arc. Dent also added a career best five steals, now leading the team with 25 for the year.
Paulius Murauskas was not far behind, with 24 points, six rebounds, and six assists. The Lithuanian national came into the game as both West Coast Conference Player of the Week and the Oscar Robertson National Player of the Week. He has now scored 20+ in four straight—and he has racked up double figures in eight straight.
Coming out of a bit of a cold spell was Mikey Lewis, who scored 20, including three made threes and a perfect 9–9 shooting from the stripe. In terms of rebounds, Andrew McKeever led the Gaels with 11 boards, for his eighth double-digit rebounding game. Dillan Shaw tallied six assists without a turnover.
Matching Blow for Blow
Through the first five minutes of the game, the Gaels (16–2, 5–0 WCC) and Cougars (8–10, 3–2 WCC) matched each other blow for blow, with seven lead changes happening in that stretch. Washington State took a narrow 12–11 lead, but the Gaels responded with a 7–0 run, five of which were scored by Paulius Murauskas. The Cougs managed to cut the deficit to three points with 11:31 to go, but a 25–10 run gave Saint Mary’s their largest lead of the game at 18 points, and the Gaels took a 50–38 lead into the break.
The Gaels were splashing threes aplenty: 27 of Saint Mary’s 50 first half points came from beyond the arc, including four made threes from Joshua Dent.
The Cougars battled hard to get back into contention, cutting the deficit back to single digits just three minutes into the second half, and back to one possession at the 7:26 mark. But every time Washington State seemed to have the upper hand, the Gaels would hit a momentum-killing bucket. A 12–2 run generated solely by Mikey Lewis over a 3:10 stretch pushed Saint Mary’s ahead 80–67 with four minutes to go, and they were able to lock up the eventual 88–82 win.
Let’s Talk Threes and the Stripe
For the first time in over a decade, the Gaels had three players score 20+ in a game. The last time the Gaels accomplished this feat was in the 2013–14 season, when Stephen Holt, Brad Waldow, and Kerry Carter all scored 20+ against Pacific.
Against WSU, the 14 three pointers Saint Mary’s buried is the most since they drained 15 against San Diego last January. Joshua Dent led the charge with six of those threes on Saturday, en route to that career-high 26 points.
The Gaels went a perfect 20–20 from the stripe, a new program record for a single game. The previous record of 18–18 came against LMU back in February 2022. On Saturday night, Paulius Murauskas went a perfect 6–6 on free throws, leading to his 24 points. Mikey Lewis went 9–9, helping to his 20 points.
The Gaels are now one of only two teams unbeaten in West Coast Conference play. The other: Gonzaga.
Up Next: Gaels vs. USF
The Gaels have a quick turnaround, taking on San Francisco at War Memorial at the Sobrato Center on Tuesday, January 13. Tip-off is set for 8 p.m. Watch the game on ESPN2.
