Paulius Murauskas scored 18 points, including a pivotal 3-pointer with 30 seconds left, and grabbed 12 rebounds to lead No. 23 Saint Mary’s past Loyola Marymount 58-55 in Los Angeles on Thursday night for its sixth straight victory.

The Gaels, making their first appearance in the AP Top 25 this season, took the lead for good on a putback by Murauskas with 6:08 to play in the first half amid a 16-2 run that made it 24-17 when Mikey Lewis hit a 3 about five minutes later.

Saint Mary’s (26-4, 16-1 West Coast Conference) clinched its second consecutive outright regular-season conference title with a 74-67 win at Gonzaga last time out.

Caleb Stone-Carrawell led Loyola Marymount (16-14, 8-10) with 17 points, and Will Johnston scored 12.

Mitchell Saxen played his program-record 151st career game for the Gaels, breaking the mark set by Alex Ducas (2019-24). Saxen fouled out with about five minutes left and finished with seven rebounds.

Women

Stanford takes care of Miami in Maples >> Four Cardinal scored in double figures and Stanford used a strong second-half spurt to take control and dispatch visiting Miami 86-69 on Thursday night.

Brooke Demetre led Stanford (15-13, 7-10) with 19 points, a career-high six assists and zero turnovers and Courtney Ogden put up a personal best for the second consecutive game, scoring 18. Chloe Clardy added 16 points and six assists, while Elena Bosgana chipped in 15 and was a team-best +23 in her 31 minutes.

With the win, the Cardinal kept alive its chance of securing a first-round bye in the ACC Tournament. With a win over Georgia Tech on Sunday and road losses by Virginia at No. 8 North Carolina and Virginia Tech at Clemson, Stanford would be the No. 9 seed and play Thursday at 10:30 a.m. PT. The Cardinal has won four of its last five and is 13-0 against unranked opponents in Maples Pavilion this season.

Cal runs away from Georgia Tech >> Cal went up by 14 points after the first quarter and didn’t look back as it earned a wire-to-wire 79-65 victory against Georgia Tech at Haas Pavilion on Thursday night.

Cal’s Ioanna Krimili knocked down five 3-pointers and moved into 10th place on the NCAA’s all-time career list, passing Belmont’s Darby Maggard. Michelle Onyiah was dominant in the paint, finishing just one point shy of her career high with 24 points (11-of-16) along with 10 rebounds for her ninth double-double of the season and fourth in the last seven contests.

The win gave the Golden Bears (23-7, 11-6 ACC) their 15th home win of the season – tying a program record – and locked them into the seven seed for next week’s ACC Tournament as the Yellow Jackets (21-8, 9-8) were one game back of Cal in the eighth spot heading into the game.