Kraken Struggle to Shake Bad Habits in 5-1 Loss to Blues
It wasn’t pretty, but it was exactly what the Seattle Kraken wanted.
After allowing three tip-in goals in a 4-1 loss to the Dallas Stars the night before, the Kraken expressed a desire, a necessity, to throw more pucks on net to create scoring chances for themselves.
“We just need to get pucks towards the net, and get a greasy one,” defenseman Ryker Evans told reporters in Dallas after Wednesday’s game. “We were just trying to make a fancy play or just pass it, and we just need to get it to the net.”
So after Seattle allowed two goals in the first 95 seconds of the second period against the St. Louis Blues to go down 3-1 on Thursday, it appeared Evans followed through when the Kraken needed someone to cut the deficit.
Will Heimbrodt’s Career Night Lifts Redhawks to 87-80 Road Win vs. Waves
WCC play has been up and down for Wiil Heimbrodt, but in the wake of guard Brayden Maldonado's injury, the playmaking forward has stepped up. On Wednesday night, the sophomore put together the best performance of his career at the perfect time to lead the Redhawks to an 87-80 win over the Pepperdine Waves.
Igniting a hot Seattle U offense, Heimbrodt finished with 24 points on 10-13 shooting from the field, matching a career-high, along with five assists, five blocks, four rebounds, and four steals. From the tip, he represented a matchup nightmare for the Waves. No one in the backcourt could match his physicality, and no one in the front court could keep up with his speed. Niine of his field goals came in the paint, and he got to the rim in a multitude of ways.
Gonzaga Cruises in Senior Night Win Over Portland, Clinches No. 1 Seed in WCC
There was no semblance of an upset this time around. In Gonzaga’s final game of the season at the McCarthey Athletic Center, the Bulldogs (28-2, 16-1) annihilated Portland (12-18, 5-12) on Senior Night 89-48, clinching the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament and at least a share of the regular season title in the program’s final year as a member of the WCC.
It capped off their first undefeated season at home since 2021-22, and with the Zags cutting down the net on their home court afterwards, the postgame emotions were certainly different compared to when they suffered their lone conference loss to the Pilots three weeks ago. It was a true beatdown on both ends, as GU notched its largest margin of defeat of West Coast play, and its most lopsided victory since Dec. 7, when it beat North Florida by 51.
Fueling Portland in its previous matchup against Gonzaga was freshman Joel Foxwell, who drilled several contested and back-breaking shots on the way to a 27-point performance. His game tonight started similarly, as he knocked down two stepback three-pointers over Mario Saint-Supéry before drawing a foul on a third attempt from distance. But his scoring magic did not continue, with the Bulldogs locking in defensively on Foxwell – who finished with just 12 points on 4-of-12 shooting – and the rest of the Pilots’ offense to hold them to several scoreless stretches.
Kraken Stumble Out of Olympic Break With 4-1 Loss to Stars
Coming off the extended Olympic break, the Seattle Kraken managed to put together the kind of start they wanted against the Dallas Stars on Wednesday.
Playing physical from the jump, Seattle did not allow a shot on goal from Dallas between 5:21 and 12:40 in the first period, and put together a productive power-play opportunity in that span, albeit without scoring.
However, the Stars picked up the pressure in the final minutes of the first, scoring just 1:19 before the intermission before taking a 2-0 lead 1:43 into the second. Before the second period was half over, the Kraken trailed 4-0 en route to a 4-1 loss.
Huskies Avoid Big Ten Cellar with Hannes Steinbach’s Big Game at Rutgers
It’s “celebrate the little wins” season for the Washington men’s basketball team.
Behind Hannes Steinbach’s 17th double-double, the Huskies put themselves in a strong position to earn a Big Ten Tournament bye heading into the final three games of a disappointing, injury-riddled season with a 79-72 win at Rutgers.
Gonzaga Baseball Loses Two of Three at Texas State, Falls to 2-5
Continuing a tough stretch to begin the season, Gonzaga baseball (2-5) took on Texas State (5-2) this past weekend, but once again succumbed on the road. Although they had opportunities to win the series, the Bulldogs instead lost two of three games to the Bobcats.
Texas State scored first in all three contests, with the Zags needing to play catch-up constantly throughout the set. The first game was the toughest pill to swallow for the Zags, as they blew a three-run cushion, with the Bobcats plating four runs in the eighth to steal it. GU’s bats were quieted by the opposing starters in each of the final two games, sparking a rally late in the middle game but not being able to repeat its heroics in the rubber match.
How did another series squeeze out of Gonzaga’s grasp?
Washington State Fizzles in Second Half, Saint Mary’s Pulls Away for 83-67 Win
The Washington State Cougars hung with Saint Mary's for nearly 27 minutes on Saturday night, but a cold half from beyond the arc and a lack of stops down the stretch allowed the favored Gaels to pull away for an 83–67 victory in Pullman.
For much of the game, the Cougars showed they were capable of competing with one of the top teams in the West Coast Conference. However, they needed to play at their best for 40 minutes and once Saint Mary’s started to pull away, Washington State wasn’t able to make another run to get back in it in the closing minutes.
Washington State shot the ball from three-point range really well in the first half, going 7-12 from downtown, sending coach David Riley’s team into the break trailing 40-39.
John Christofilis, Seniors Step Up in Redhawks 71-59 Win Over Pilots
With Seattle U celebrating senior night at the Connolly Center, all three seniors that dressed were in the starting lineup together for the first time this season, and all made a significant impact in the Redhawks 71-59 win over the Portland Pilots on Saturday night.
Prior to his senior season, John Christofilis started 50 games over his sophomore and junior seasons with the Redhawks. This year, however, his minutes and opportunities have all been reduced in a bench role. However, the savvy guard has not hung his head, instead fitting into whatever role Chris Victor needed from him and on Saturday, he made the most of his chance in a return to the lineup with Brayden Maldonado still out due to injury.
Gonzaga Wins Clunky Contest Against Pacific 71-62
It sure wasn’t pretty. There were plenty of ill-advised shots, rushed possessions, and a bunch of missed free throws, but Gonzaga (27-2, 16-1) still found a way to get past Pacific (17-13, 8-9) 71-62 at home for its fifth consecutive victory.
Watching the Tigers on tape, Mark Few figured the game would be far from a smooth operation. His prediction was taken to the extreme, with Gonzaga playing one of its rougher stretches of basketball this season in the first half.
Eight and a half hours earlier, there was a bracket preview held for the NCAA Tournament, where the Zags were listed as one of the No.3 seeds. One of the committee chairs, Keith Gill, shared that the group was seriously considering GU as a No.4 seed prior to a season-ending injury to Texas Tech’s JT Toppin, with the Bulldogs’ lone conference loss to Portland still looming large in the eyes of the committee.
Mariners Drop Saturday Spring Game 10-5; Hancock Appears Solid in Start
The beating Arizona sun took quite its share of victims for the second day in a row as the San Francisco Giants made the trip over from Scottsdale to Peoria for some Cactus League action against the Seattle Mariners. Chief among those victims this time was Emerson Hancock’s Spring Training ERA as the M’s let a five-run lead become a five-run loss.
But since the score doesn’t matter in February, let’s take a look at some of the few things that might give us the faintest echo of an idea for how the Mariners look going into 2026.
Emerson Hancock shows some life in his first outing of the spring.
Seattle’s pitching lab has seen a lot of success in recent years, with Bryan Woo, Logan Gilbert, and George Kirby turning into key pieces of the Mariners’ arsenal. But so far, that success has not been flowing in Emerson Hancock’s direction. Hancock, who has a career 4.81 ERA, 5.23 FIP, and 1.359 WHIP across 37 appearances (31 starts), enters 2026 with one more shot to become a major league starter.
Huskies Men’s Basketball Can’t Close Out Terrapins On the Road
The Washington Huskies men’s basketball team missed a trio of opportunities to tie or win the game before Maryland’s Andre Mills threw down an alley-oop dagger in a 64-60 loss on Saturday, Feb. 21, at the Xfinity Center.
UW (13-14, 5-11 Big Ten) ended up on the wrong side of a nail-biter, as its struggling defense rose to the surface as a critical issue once again. Maryland (11-16, 4-12 Big Ten) continued its recent success, winning three out of its last five games.
Baseball’s Back: Five Notes from Mariners’ First Spring Training Action of 2026
With blue skies above and many excited fans all around in that picturesque Cactus League ballpark, the Seattle Mariners played their first game of 2026 Spring Training on Friday, Feb. 20. The first day of spring is perhaps the most hopeful time for all 30 teams in any given year, with a nearly clean slate injury-wise and the first harsh reality checks of the regular season still a month and change away.
A quite packed house of 9,956 spectators dotted the Peoria Sports Complex to see the Mariners and Padres both take to their home Spring ball yard. They saw prospects go up against powerhouses in exciting duels and yet also witnessed players trip over each other, lose cans of corn in the sun, and make Little League errors in base coverage. No one got hurt and the game doesn’t count, so both sides came away with a smile in a 7-4 win for Seattle. But what does the first preseason action of 2026 tell us about how things might go when real chips are down for the Mariners?
Michael Arroyo put on a good display at the dish, with a homer and double to power early Seattle production.
Seattle’s system has a fair amount of top-end hitting prospects, and although Colt Emerson and Lazaro Montes headline the system, the crown in Peoria bore witness to another of Seattle’s guys in the farm system. Michael Arroyo, who struggled a bit with his power after his promotion to Double-A in 2025 with a .255/.376/.341 slash line (though this was still a 121 OPS+ where 100 is league average) - and yet decreased his strikeout rate against better pitchers - went into Spring with the chance to show what exactly the Mariners have with him.
Gonzaga WBB Smashes Washington State 75-50 to Remain Atop WCC Standings
Needing to keep pace with the other handful of teams bunched at the peak of the WCC, Gonzaga women’s basketball (20-8, 12-3) took care of business at home Thursday night, dismantling Washington State (5-22, 4-10) by a score of 75-50 to holds its first-place spot with three games remaining in the regular season.
Considering the Bulldogs beat the Cougs by six points the last time these teams squared off three weeks ago, GU certainly brought the correct adjustments and mindset for such a lopsided victory this time around, especially coming off the team’s tough loss on Saturday to LMU that had significant implications on conference seeding. The Zags played a brand of basketball that they intend to continue to build on with the postseason on the horizon — physicality on defense and limiting turnovers.
Gonzaga Bulldozes San Francisco 80-59 at Chase Center
Mark Few’s message to his team all season long has been that ‘every dog will have its day’. When Braden Huff, Gonzaga’s star forward, was sidelined in the middle of January with a left knee injury, the significance of that motto increased substantially. Huff’s running mate in the frontcourt, Graham Ike, was expected to and has held things down from a production standpoint.
But for a period, the Bulldogs struggled to find consistent offense from those alongside Ike with Huff on the bench, lacking the balance needed to truly threaten teams in the half-court.
Now continuing to build off strong performances, the Zags (26-2, 14-1) are getting welcome contributions from several members on the roster game-over-game, most recently disposing of San Francisco (15-14, 7-9) 80-59 to extend their winning streak to four. Even with Ike scoring 22, his eighth straight game of eclipsing 20 points, punishing the Dons who dared him to knock down open mid-range jumpers – and he obliged – the story was about those around him, who provided enough to leave the Chase Center with a blowout victory.
Multiple Redhawks Step Up Off Bench in 60-50 Win Over Beavers
Midway through the first half, the Seattle U Redhawks leading scorer, Brayden Maldonado, exited to the locker room with a lower body injury. Typically, this would spell doom for a mid-major college basketball program, especially one that has struggled as much as Chris Victor’s team has on the offensive side of the court all season long.
But despite the devastating loss for Seattle with Maldonado unable to return to play, it was all hands-on deck for John Christofilis and the Redhawks as they managed to fill that void with 37 points off the bench and come away with the 60-50 win over Oregon State on Sunday night at the Redhawk Center.
Gonzaga Baseball Drops Three of Four in Season Opening Series to Hawai’i
The first games of a baseball season bring anticipation and excitement, but after Gonzaga baseball (1-3) lost three of four games to Hawai’i to open the 2025-26 campaign, the feeling that sets in is frustration.
Even with the Bulldogs’ offense falling dormant for a lot of the set while posting inopportune defense more than they’d like, there was still a chance to flip the result of their time in Mānoa, with two of the games going to extra innings before having a one-run lead entering the ninth of the final contest. Pitching was the highlight of the weekend for the Zags, but the unit dropped the ball late on Monday with a chance to escape the Aloha State with a series split, putting a damper on mostly heroic efforts from the staff to begin the season.
‘Took a Village’: Gonzaga Beats Santa Clara 94-86 to Reclaim First Place in WCC
Things haven’t been as smooth offensively for the Gonzaga Bulldogs (25-2, 13-1) since Braden Huff went down with a knee injury a month ago. The operation has gone stagnant more frequently, which has led to declining defensive play, fewer of the team’s three-point attempts have been falling, and outside of the Zags’ leading scorer, Graham Ike, there has been a lack of consistent production from everyone else. The overall drop-off has led to much tighter wins, not including a devastating loss to Portland last Thursday.
But in GU’s biggest game of the season on the road against Santa Clara (22-6, 13-2), several members of the supporting cast stepped up to the challenge to overcome the Broncos 94-86, snapping their nine-game winning streak and handing them their first home loss of the season to reclaim first place in the WCC.
Gonzaga WBB Takes Down San Diego 66-56, Wins Fifth Straight Game
For not being a particularly stellar defensive team, Gonzaga women’s basketball (19-7, 11-2) is sure in a groove with its back to the basket. After surrendering only 37 and 44 points, respectively, in their previous two games, the Bulldogs captured their fifth straight win by a score of 66-56 over the San Diego Toreros (9-18, 3-11), continuing a run of strong performances defensively.
GU head coach Lisa Fortier has found a formula with her deep rotations, as even if all 11 or 12 players she is checking in aren’t getting substantial minutes, the starters and the first couple off the bench can remain fresh over the course of games. Roles are setting in for each Bulldog to contribute situationally, and it might be the best way to get the most out of this group on the defensive end.
Redhawks’ Explosive Second Half Offense Outpaced by Broncos in 84-72 Defeat
Following a loss Saturday night loss to the Portland Pilots where they scored just 53 points, the Seattle U Redhawks couldn’t afford another sluggish offensive performance going up against the high-powered Santa Clara Broncos, and they heeded the call with one of their best offensive games of the season.
But despite 20 minutes of some of their best offense in the second half, the Redhawks still fell to the Broncos 84-72 Wednesday night at the Leavey Center, continuing to slump in WCC play.
Huskies Humiliated at Hec Ed by Penn State in 63-60 Loss
RIP, University of Washington men’s basketball tournament hopes.
November 3, 2025 - February 11, 2026.
The Huskies’ Big Dance dreams spent the last few weeks on life support. Though there’s still the option of winning the Big Ten tournament to steal an automatic bid, that seems less likely than the New England Patriots rebounding from a 29-7 Super Bowl deficit with 4 minutes remaining against the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl LX.
One may not know for certain it’s over, while being pretty darned sure it is.
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