West Coast Conference standouts: From left, Mitchell Saxen (Defensive Player of the Year, First Team), Augustas Marciulionis (Player of the Year, First Team), Luke Barrett (Honorable Mention, All-Academic First Team), Mikey Lewis (Sixth Man of the Year, All-Freshman Team), Paulius Murauskas (Newcomer of the Year, First Team). / Photo composite by Piper Westrom for SMC Athletics
Gaels Rake in the Hardware for West Coast Conference Season Awards
Saint Mary’s wins five of the six individual awards: Player of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year, Newcomer of the Year, Sixth Man of the Year, and Coach of the Year. Plus five all-conference honorees and more.
Saint Mary’s won big as a team, and now it’s time for individual accolades: After capturing the West Coast Conference Regular Season Title for the third straight season, the Gaels received loads of recognition on the end-of-season WCC awards list, announced yesterday. There are six major individual awards, and Gaels claimed all but one.
Augustas Marciulionis was named Player of the Year for the second consecutive year. Mitchell Saxen earned his second straight Defensive Player of the Year nod. Paulius Murauskas was named Newcomer of the Year, and Mikey Lewis garnered Sixth Man of the Year honors. Marciulionis, Murauskas, and Saxen were all named First Team All-WCC. Luke Barrett received All-WCC honorable mention recognition and was named a first team member of the WCC All-Academic Team. Mikey Lewis was also named to the All-Freshman team. Head Coach Randy Bennett once again received the WCC Coach of the Year award, making it his fourth in a row, tying him with USF’s Phil Woolpert for the second-longest streak in conference history.
Player of the Year | Augustas Marciulionis
Augustas Marciulionis is now the second-ever Gael to earn back-to-back WCC Player of the Year honors, joining Steve Gray, who won in 1962 and 1963. Marciulionis had a breakout season to win the award a year ago, averaging 12.4 points and 5.3 assists per game. In the season just ending, the senior out of Vilnius, Lithuania saw upticks in almost all of his statistical categories, averaging 14.4 points and 6.1 assists per game, while also leading the Gaels with 43 steals. He surpassed the 1,000 point mark—now with 1,175 for his career—and is closing in on 500 assists, now at 485. Marciulionis recorded point-assist double-doubles twice this season, and seven times he scored 20+ points in a game. His 189 assists this season earn him the current status of 11th in the country. This is also the second time he has won a nod as First Team All-WCC.
Defensive Player of the Year | Mitchell Saxen
In the history of the WCC Defensive Player of the Year Award, heading into the 2024–25 campaign, there had been only one two-time winner of this award, Gael great Diamon Simpson. Now there are two: Mitchell Saxen has earned his second straight Defensive Player of the Year nod. The big man from Seattle was the only player in the conference this year to record both 30+ blocked shots and 40+ steals. While his defensive prowess has been second to none in the WCC, Saxen has still managed to be a fearsome force on the interior offensively, averaging 10.4 points and 8.0 rebounds per game. His nine double-doubles rank fourth in the conference this season, while he leads the WCC and ranks second in the country, averaging 4.19 offensive rebounds per contest. Like Marciulionis, Saxen also surpassed 1,000 points this season—now with 1,285 points. With 896 rebounds, he sits in fifth in program history; with 150 blocks, he ranks fourth. With his 31 games played (and counting) this season, Saxen now has appeared in 152 games as a Gael, more than any other men’s basketball player to come through Saint Mary’s. This is Saxen’s third nod as First Team All-WCC.
Newcomer of the Year | Paulius Murauskas
Many folks around Saint Mary’s Basketball and the WCC knew the name Paulius Murauskas when the sophomore transferred to SMC from Arizona. Three games into his Gaels career, they knew firsthand what a force he could be on the maplewood: He went for three consecutive double-doubles to open his Saint Mary’s tenure. That remained the theme of his season, as he finished the regular season tied for the most double-doubles in the conference, with 12. The Gaels’ second-leading scorer and the conference’s leading rebounder, Murauskas, averaged 13.9 points and 8.1 rebounds per game. He became the first Gael in three seasons to score 30 in a game, doing so against Washington State on February 15. He’s also the first Gael with double-digit double-doubles since Jock Landale in 2017–18. He is the fifth Gael to be named WCC Newcomer of the Year, and the first since one of his current coaches, Joe Rahon, won the award in 2015–16. He also received a First Team All-WCC nod.
Sixth Man of the Year | Mikey Lewis
The instant spark of offense that the Gaels needed all season long off the bench, true freshman Mikey Lewis became the second-ever Saint Mary’s student-athlete to earn WCC Sixth Man of the Year, joining Tommy Kuhse in that distinction. An Oakland native, Lewis has been the Gaels’ best three-point shooter this year, burying 56 of his 136 attempts for a 41.2% clip. With a flair for big game spotlights, Lewis dropped 23 points in the Gaels victory over Big 10 foe Nebraska, and he averaged 17 points per game in his first two collegiate matchups with Gonzaga, both victories. He is the 10th Gael to be named to the WCC All-Freshman Team.
All-WCC Honorable Mention and All-WCC Academic Team | Luke Barrett
Luke Barrett rounds out the group of all-conference honorees, earning his first All-WCC nod as an honorable mention member. This was his first season as a starter—in which he started every game, in fact. He often played the full 40 minutes and led the conference in minutes played, while averaging 9.7 points and 6.6 rebounds per game. He logged his first six collegiate double-doubles this year, and had his first collegiate 20-point game in the conference opener against Pacific. For Barrett, this season included career-highs in points, rebounds, field goals made, three-pointers made, assists, blocked shots, and steals.
For the second straight season, Barrett has also been named a first team member of the WCC All-Academic Team. He is the ninth Gael to earn a WCC All-Academic nod in multiple seasons; former teammate Kyle Bowen did it most recently, in 2022 and 2023. To qualify for the WCC All-Academic Team, student-athletes must maintain a minimum 3.20 cumulative grade point average, be a starter or important reserve, as well as other requirements. Barrett checked all these boxes and then some. He is the team’s fourth leading scorer and third leading rebounder, while connecting on the third most made three-pointers. Barrett did all this while maintaining a 3.23 GPA in his work toward a master’s in Management and Technology. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Communication in 2024, holding a cumulative 3.31 undergraduate GPA.
Coach of the Year | Randy Bennett
For the fourth consecutive year and seventh time in his illustrious career, Head Coach Randy Bennett has been named the WCC Coach of the Year. He led the Gaels to their third straight WCC Regular Season Title in 2024–25. And Bennett notched a rare first in his tenure at the helm of Saint Mary’s: The four straight Coach of the Year nods tie him with legendary USF Head Coach Phil Woolpert for second most consecutive honors. He also lays claim to the second most WCC Coach of the Year nods overall. Bennett’s 17–1 WCC record this season was the best conference record in program history, besting last year's 15–1 conference slate.
Bennett a Finalist for the Jim Phelan National Coach of the Year Award and the Hugh Durham National Coach of the Year Award
Randy Bennett has also been named a finalist for the Jim Phelan National Coach of the Year Award and the Hugh Durham National Coach of the Year Award. The Jim Phelan Award is presented annually to the top head coach in Division I College Basketball and is named in honor of a legendary bow-tied coach who spent his entire head coaching career at Mount Saint Mary's University, where he won 830 games over a 49-year coaching career. This is the second consecutive year that Coach Bennett has been named a finalist for this esteemed award.
The Hugh Durham Award honors the top mid-major head coach in Division I College Basketball, and is named in honor of the former Florida State, Georgia, and Jacksonville head coach. The recipient of each award is determined by a 10-member voting committee, which consists of current and former head coaches, as well as two senior staff members of collegeinsider.com. The 2025 award will be announced in San Antonio, Texas, site of the men's Division I Basketball Championship.
Bennett continues to keep Saint Mary's atop the mid-major and national ranks. This season, Bennett traversed the departure of six student-athletes (four portal, two graduation) and still managed to lead his team to their third straight WCC Regular Season Title and their second straight outright WCC Regular Season Title, both new program records. Known for coaching a brand of physical, old-school basketball, Bennett helped the Gaels to be recognized once again as one of the best defensive and rebounding teams in the country: They’re tops in the country in rebound margin (+10.8), fifth in scoring defense (60.8 points per game allowed), 10th in offensive rebounding (14.03 per game), 12th in scoring margin (+13.4), and 22nd in total rebounding (39.52 per game).
He became the first Saint Mary’s Coach in 60+ years to coach a back-to-back WCC Player of the Year and the only Saint Mary’s Coach to coach two two-time WCC Defensive Players of the Year. The all-time winningest coach in Saint Mary's Men's Basketball history by 450 games, Bennett has amassed a record of 560–220 in his 24 years at the helm, including a 270–95 conference coaching record, second best in WCC history.
Next Up: Eyes on Vegas
With all of these honors under their belt, the Gaels will head to Las Vegas to take part in the Credit Union 1 WCC Basketball Championship Tournament, which runs March 6–11. Saint Mary’s is the No. 1 seed, with their first action coming in the semifinals Monday, March 10 at 6 p.m. If you can’t cheer on the Gaels in Vegas, watch the game live on ESPN.
