Rout leads to Gaels-Zags III
LAS VEGAS — With four minutes still on the clock Monday night, the St. Mary’s starters sat on the bench — three of them trying to cover their mouths with towels. But they couldn’t hide it. Everyone who watched the Gaels’ 81-50 WCC tournament semifinal shellacking of BYU at Orleans Arena knew it was a laugher.
No. 2 seed St. Mary’s (28-3) advanced to the championship to play top-seeded Gonzaga (31-1) at 6 p.m. Tuesday on ESPN without breaking much of a sweat against the Cougars (22-11).
“I think you want to go into the Gonzaga game playing well, so that’s in our favor,” St. Mary’s head coach Randy Bennett said. “We played well. We shot it well. … Gonzaga is a game that I think both teams look forward to.
“I think it’s the two best teams
LAS VEGAS — WCC Player of the Year Cassie Broadhead pulled up from way behind the three-point arc and clanged one hard off the back iron with 12 seconds remaining.
It was a fitting final possession for BYU, because St. Mary’s completely shut down the league’s leading scorer and dominated the interior to win the tournament semifinal game 59-49 on Monday afternoon at Orleans Arena.
The Gaels (20-11) advance to the championship to play topseeded Gonzaga (25-6) at 1 p.m. Tuesday after playing one of their most well-rounded games of the season.
“It’s a big game for our whole team,” St. Mary’s senior guard Devyn Galland said. “We’ve been wanting to get to this point for years now. Gonzaga is always fun to play against. The crowd is always fun, the environment and stakes. “It’s do or die at this point.” St. Mary’s limited the Cougars (20-11) to 33.9 percent shooting from the floor. It held Broadhead to two points on 1-for-9 shooting from the floor and 0-for-6 shooting from three-point range. The junior guard averages 18.4 points per game.
“I thought she played very tentatively,” BYU head coach Jeff Judkins said. “She wasn’t aggressive. I don’t know the reason for that, but it wasn’t one of her best games.”
The Gaels made 18 of 20 free-throw attempts, outrebounded BYU 50-25 and had four double-digit scorers. Shannon Mauldin led the way with 13 points, Sydney Raggio had 12 points and eight rebounds, Megan McKay produced a double-double (10 points, 14 rebounds) and Galland added 10 points.
Stella Beck filled the stat sheet with nine points, seven rebounds and four assists and was the primary defender on Broadhead. BYU got 16 points from Makenzi Pulsipher and 15 points and nine rebounds from Kalani Purcell, but it wasn’t nearly enough against an experienced St. Mary’s squad that won the fourth quarter 18-10.
Despite the WCC Player of the Year being held scoreless until the 7:43 mark of the second quarter and then having Broadhead go to the bench with three fouls two minutes later, BYU went to the locker room with a 27-20 lead.
The Cougars were still ahead 33-26 after an Amanda Wayment layup at the 6:23 mark of the third quarter. St. Mary’s responded with a 13-0 run, taking a 39-33 lead on two McKay free throws with 2:37 to play in the third.