Washington State Cougars (8-9, 3-1 WCC) at Saint Mary’s Gaels (15-2, 4-0 WCC)
Moraga, California; Saturday, 5 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: Saint Mary’s (CA) takes on Washington State after Paulius Murauskas scored 30 points in Saint Mary’s (CA)’s 93-76 victory against the Seattle U Redhawks.
The Gaels have gone 10-0 in home games. Saint Mary’s (CA) is second in the WCC in rebounding averaging 36.9 rebounds. Andrew McKeever leads the Gaels with 9.1 boards.
The Cougars have gone 3-1 against WCC opponents. Washington State is 1-1 in games decided by 3 points or fewer.
Saint Mary’s (CA) scores 79.4 points per game, 4.2 more points than the 75.2 Washington State allows. Washington State averages 8.6 made 3-pointers per game this season, 2.3 more made shots on average than the 6.3 per game Saint Mary’s (CA) allows.
The matchup Saturday is the first meeting of the season for the two teams in conference play.
TOP PERFORMERS: Murauskas is scoring 19.3 points per game with 7.6 rebounds and 2.2 assists for the Gaels. Joshua Dent is averaging 13.0 points and 3.0 rebounds while shooting 51.7% over the past 10 games.
Rihards Vavers averages 2.3 made 3-pointers per game for the Cougars, scoring 9.4 points while shooting 38.7% from beyond the arc. Aaron Glass is shooting 42.9% and averaging 13.7 points over the last 10 games.
LAST 10 GAMES: Gaels: 8-2, averaging 75.7 points, 35.3 rebounds, 13.5 assists, 5.1 steals and 3.1 blocks per game while shooting 46.6% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 67.5 points per game.
Cougars: 5-5, averaging 68.9 points, 35.0 rebounds, 11.9 assists, 4.9 steals and 3.3 blocks per game while shooting 43.5% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 70.0 points.
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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.