No stumble this time for Gonzaga
Gonzaga stumbled in last year’s West Coast Conference tournament, losing to rival Saint Mary’s in the title game after dominating the regular season.
The Zags won another regularseason title this year with a new group of players and again found themselves in a championship-game fight with the Gaels.
Instead of buckling under the pressure, Gonzaga pushed back with a dominating second half to reclaim the title and, potentially, a No. 1 NCAA Tournament seed.
Drew Timme scored 15 of his 17 points in the first half, Filip Petrusev had a double-double and No. 2 Gonzaga beat Saint Mary’s 84-66 to reclaim the West Coast Conference tournament title Tuesday night.
“It wasn’t always easy, but we adapted at halftime,” said Gonzaga’s Joel Ayayi, who had 17 points. “We came out with an edge and that was the difference.”
The top-seeded Zags (31-2) recovered from a middling performance in the semifinals to win their eighth WCC tournament title in 10 years and 17th overall.
Playing in its 23rd straight WCC title game, Gonzaga raced away from the Gaels in a dominating second half.
Ayayi scored 17 points and Petrusev finished with 10 points and 14 rebounds to help the Zags outscore Saint Mary’s 48-22 in the paint.
“They’re really big inside. That’s their strength,” Saint Mary’s coach Randy Bennett said. “It’s a little bit of a problem for us because we don’t have the size. They kept bringing it down in the post and that was the story of the game, why they beat us.”
Saint Mary’s (26-8) upset Gonzaga in last year’s title game to earn the WCC’s automatic NCAA Tournament bid and kept pace with the Zags in an entertaining first half this time.
Jordan Ford and Malik Fitts combined to score Saint Mary’s first 34 points to keep things close, but Gonzaga tightened up defensively in the second half to pull away.
Ford finished with 27 points and Fitts 17 for the Gaels, who should be in decent shape to make the NCAA Tournament despite the loss.
“We needed to get the ball out of Jordan Ford’s hands,” Gonzaga coach Mark Few said. “He’s an unbelievable player and when he gets going like that and Fitts is making those deep 3s, we had to change the dynamic a little bit.”
The Zags and Gaels eked their way into their 11th title-game meeting.
Gonzaga struggled putting away San Francisco 81-77 in the semis while Saint Mary’s advanced with a 51-50 victory over No. 14 BYU on Ford’s last-second shot.
The Zags won the two regularseason meetings between the rivals by a combined 40 points on their way to claiming an eighth-straight WCC regular-season title.
Petrusev did most of the damage in the final game of the regular season, scoring 27 points.
It was Timme’s time in Las Vegas. The 6-foot-10 freshman repeatedly got deep post position against the Gaels and took advantage, hitting 7 of 8 shots for 15 points in the first half. Gonzaga led 42-41 at halftime.
“It was a good game — for a half,” Bennett said.
Big East honors: Myles Powell, who skipped a chance to play in the NBA to become the first member of his family to earn a college degree, was selected the Big East Conference player of the year after leading Seton Hall to a three-way share of the regular-season title.
Villanova forward Jeremiah Robinson-Earl was chosen the league’s freshman of the year and Greg McDermott of Creighton was voted the coach of the year.
The winners represented the three teams that shared the regular-season crown.
Powell averaged 21 points, second most in the league and 17th best in the country in helping the Pirates earn a share of the program’s first regularseason championship since 1993. The guard from Trenton, N.J. was at his best on the road, averaging 25.8 points in leading the Pirates (21-9) to a 7-2 mark in Big East play.
Powell is the second Seton Hall player to earn Big East Player of the Year honors, joining Terry Dehere (1992-93.)