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Provo • While the Cougars played against unfamiliar opponents last week, all the other teams in the West Coast Conference except San Diego were playing a pair of intense conference games.

BYU opens WCC play on Thursday at McKeon Pavilion against the 11-1 Saint Mary's Gaels, and coach Dave Rose is concerned his young players don't know what lies ahead.

"It is a whole new season," Rose said Tuesday. "For the new guys, they will see that there is a whole new urgency and intensity that comes with conference play. Saint Mary's has already experienced that in two games already. So we will see how we do."

For the first time since joining the WCC in 2011, the Cougars won't face SMC's Brad Waldow, who graduated. Coach Randy Bennett starts five new faces. The Gaels routed Stanford and nearly beat Cal.

"They've got good, young players, and they really execute well," Rose said. "They are shooting the ball at just an unbelievable rate. … They have five or six guys who are scoring between 14 and 9 points a game. You can't really just focus on one guy."

The Gaels lead the country in field goal percentage (53.8) and are third in 3-point field goal percentage (45.2). They are strong defensively, allowing 57.4 points per game, third-best in the country.

Fischer fired up

Senior guard Chase Fischer loves playing at McKeon Pavilion, the 3,500-seat gymnasium in Moraga, Calif.Fischer scored 19 points there last year on 6-for-15 shooting.

Seljaas mission-bound

Zac Seljaas, the guard from Bountiful High who has sparked the Cougar offense the past two weeks, confirmed to The Salt Lake Tribune on Tuesday that he plans to serve a two-year LDS Church mission after the season.

Seljaas is averaging 7.4 points in 15.2 minutes per game. He scored 18 points against Colorado, 25 against Central Michigan, eight against Harvard, six against New Mexico and 12 against Northern Iowa.

Toolson update

Rose said sophomore guard Jake Toolson is still on a leave of absence for undisclosed medical reasons and will not be making the road swing this weekend.

"We are still waiting to hear what his situation will be next semester," Rose said.

Briefly

The Cougars have shot 76 percent from the free-throw line the past six games after hooting 59 percent in the first seven games. … The Gaels were 2 for 17 from the 3-point line in Monday's 65-50 win over Utah Valley and former BYU assistant coach Mark Pope.

Twitter: @drewjay Thursday's WCC Game

BYU at Saint Mary's, 9 p.m.

TV• ESPNU

Saint Mary's in NCAA rankings

Statistic Actual Rank

Field goal % 53.8 1st

3-Point FG % 45.2 3rd

Scoring defense 57.4 3rd

Scoring margin 22.3 6th

FG % defense 38.0 23rd

Assists per game 20.2 5th

Assist-TO ratio 2.02 1st