Mitchell Saxen played in his school-record 151st game for No. 23 Saint Mary’s on Thursday night. No. 152 promises to be more emotional.
The center for the Gaels will be playing in his final home game at the cozy on-campus gym when Saint Mary’s faces Oregon State in West Coast Conference play on Saturday night in Moraga, Calif.
Saxen and teammates Augustas Marciulionis and Luke Barrett will partake in pregame Senior Night activities before Saint Mary’s (26-4, 16-1 WCC) takes aim at its seventh straight victory.
The 6-foot-10 Saxen has been a vital figure in the Gaels’ success the past three seasons after not starting a single game in his first two seasons on campus.
He was the West Coast Conference Defensive Player of the Year last season — and the favorite to repeat — and is two blocked shots away from reaching 40 for the third straight campaign. Saxen has averaged double-figure scoring and 7.6 boards or higher in each of the past three seasons.
“I didn’t go in with any expectations of ever being a starter, the guy that’s relied upon,” Saxen recently told the school website. “I just wanted to be as good as I could be and just to maximize every day. And when you do that in this program, it pays off. …
“A lot of people want to transfer out early or try to find a better situation early, but sometimes the best situation is to develop behind really good players. I feel like that was kind of the story of my career and the story of a lot of Gael careers.”
Saxen is averaging 10.3 points and 7.9 rebounds this season. His 38 blocks lead the Gaels and his 40 steals rank second.
Saint Mary’s coach Randy Bennett appreciates what Saxen has brought to the program.
“People don’t realize how good he is, but for some reason, he keeps ending up on a team that wins a lot of games,” Bennett said. “So, there’s something to be said for that.”
Saxen’s former teammate, Alex Ducas (150 from 2019-24), held the former Gaels’ record for games played.
Saint Mary’s will look to put forth a better effort against the Beavers (20-10, 10-7) after it delivered an underwhelming 58-55 road win over Loyola Marymount on Thursday.
Paulius Murauskas saved the Gaels with 18 points and 12 rebounds for his 12th double-double of the season.
The Gaels are vying to complete a two-game sweep of the Beavers after notching a 63-49 road win in Corvallis on Feb. 8. Marciulionis stood out for Saint Mary’s with 18 points, 10 assists, six rebounds and four steals. Isaiah Sy led Oregon State with 10 points off the bench.
The Beavers had a three-game winning streak end Thursday as San Francisco’s Veniamin Abosi hit a decisive 3-pointer with 7.9 seconds left in the Dons’ 74-72 road victory.
Oregon State’s Parsa Fallah scored 24 points on 11-of-13 shooting. He hit a shot that could have forced overtime but a video review showed he didn’t get it off before time expired.
Fallah (12.7) ranks second on the squad in scoring behind Michael Rataj (17.5).
Despite the tough loss against San Francisco, the Beavers have reached the 20-win mark for the second time in coach Wayne Tinkle’s 11 seasons and just the third time in 35 campaigns.
Tinkle said the milestone has major meaning.
“It certainly does. Over the years, it has changed a little but 20 wins … especially for us, adding nine new players and getting to 20 wins is certainly a great mark,” Tinkle said. “It’s funny, as soon as we wrote it up on the board the guys were like, âWe got to add to it.'”
