USF will bring a 14-0 home record to its game Thursday at War Memorial Gym at the Sobrato Center.

The Dons’ opponent is Saint Mary’s, which has won 15 straight road games, the longest active streak in Division I.

“Something’s got to give,” said USF senior Malik Thomas.

Tipoff between the league-leading Gaels (20-3, 10-0 WCC) and second-place Dons (18-6, 8-3) is 6 p.m. The game will be aired on ESPN2.

The deck appears stacked against USF. The Gaels, now ranked 23rd in the coaches poll, won 71-51 in Moraga two weeks ago and have won the past 11 games in the series. The domination goes beyond that: Saint Mary’s has taken 18 of the past 20 and 35 of the past 38 meetings.

Thomas, the WCC’s leading scorer at 19.7 points per game, will return after missing USF’s game Saturday against Washington State, sidelined by a muscle pull in his bicep.

“We found out 5 minutes before the game that he wouldn’t play,” coach Chris Gerlufsen said. The Dons didn’t miss a beat, scoring a 75-51 win over the Cougars. “We had a lot of different guys step up. I was really proud of the group.”

Thomas said he’ll be ready to go against the Gaels, and probably feels like he has something to prove. In the matchup two weeks ago, Thomas shot just 1 for 12 from the field and scored eight points.

Thomas makes no excuses for his performance. “Just one of those games,” he said. “They did a good job of playing defense and throwing a lot of bodies at me. But ultimately it came down to me missing a lot of shots I normally make. That occasionally happens.

“One game you go 1 for 12 and the next game you go 12 for 12. I’m just sticking to being me, being aggressive, being the player I know I am.”

Likewise, the Dons’ long drought against Saint Mary’s doesn’t deter Thomas’ belief in his team.

“Not beating a team since you’ve been here is kind of a confidence killer but we know this is a different season, this is a different team, these are different circumstances,” Thomas said. “We don’t lose at home so we’re not going to let anybody come in our house and just do whatever they want. I feel like our team is very confident, very ready, I think we have a great shot to win.”

Gerlufsen said the challenge is that Saint Mary’s doesn’t beat itself.

“That’s kind of the beauty of what they do. They have a system and the system doesn’t change. The players change but the system doesn’t change,” Gerlufsen said. “They’re one of the best offensive rebounding teams in the country, And defensively, they’re equally as good. They’re incredibly connected from a defensive standpoint.”

Gerlufsen said the Dons must defend the interior better than they did two weeks ago, when Saint Mary’s scored 52 points in the paint.

“Things were much too easy for them,” he said. “From a toughness and execution standpoint, we need to be a lot better.”

The Dons are two victories away from their eighth consecutive 20-win season (excluding the COVID-shortened 2020-21 season). USF had reached that plateau just twice in the previous 31 seasons.

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Gerlufsen is the Dons’ third head coach in the past nine seasons, with Kyle Smith (now at Stanford) and Todd Golden (now at Florida) each holding the reins for three seasons. Despite the changes, the Dons have continued to move forward.

The credit goes to a supportive administration and good players, Gerlufsen said.

“I would say there’s a culture and an expectation to win here,” he said.

That includes Thursday against a team that has had the Dons’ number.

“We have a different type of energy with our fans and our support system,” Thomas said. “It will be amazing. Since I’ve been here, we’re never beat them. This will be a statement win against a Top 25 team in the country.”

BIG NIGHT FOR SPARTANS

San Jose State’s men scored their first road win over Fresno State since 2009 with a 94-91 double-overtime victory on Tuesday night. The 94 points are the most the Spartans (12-12, 5-7) have scored in a Mountain West game since joining the conference in 2013.

Josh Uduje and Latrell Davis also made some SJSU history, each scoring 30 points — the first time the Spartans have had two players reach that plateau in the same game.