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St. Mary's eyes school record against Pepperdine

Jan 17, 2009 - 11:21 AM Pepperdine (4-14) at No. 25 St. Mary's (16-1) 8:00 p.m. EST

MORAGA, California (Ticker) -- St. Mary's is on the verge of a school record and a pair of meetings with two of the West Coast Conference's best.

The 25th-ranked Gaels try to avoid those distractions on Saturday when they host Pepperdine.

St. Mary's (16-1, 3-0 WCC) has won a school-record 13 straight games, including a 78-53 drubbing of Loyola Marymount on Thursday in the team's first contest as a ranked team this season.

The win put the Gaels in position for another milestone as they can clinch the best start in school history, surpassing the 1988-89 squad, which also started 16-1.

St. Mary's only loss of the season came against Texas-El Paso in the first round of the 76 Classic on November 27 and although it has won nine of the previous 10 meetings with Pepperdine dating to 2003-04, coach Randy Bennett is not concerning himself with the record.

"You can't worry about all those things," he said. "The only thing you can worry about is what St. Mary's is doing. If we're getting better ... if we're working hard every day ... if we're ready to play and play right. We've played long enough that we know how we're supposed to play. That's been our focus."

The Gaels need to avoid looking past the Waves with road matchups against second-place San Diego and Gonzaga, which is third in the WCC, looming in their next two games.

Pepperdine (4-14, 1-1) had forged back-to-back victories before falling short of its first three-game win streak of the season during a 62-47 loss to San Diego on Thursday.