Streak crashes to a halt
Gonzaga pulls even with SaintMary’satopWCC withMcKeonstomp
MORAGA >> The showdown was a rout. The streak is over, and the West Coast Conference race is a dead heat.
No. 11 Saint Mary’s, with an ESPN national audience watching and the chance to seize control of the WCC, was no match for No. 12 Gonzaga on Saturday night.
The Bulldogs smothered Gaels star Jock Landale and never trailed on the way to a 78-65 victory in front of an overflow crowd of 3,500plus at McKeon Pavilion to end the nation’s longest win streak at 19 games.
“They came in with a desperate mindset,” Gaels coach Randy Bennett said. “We didn’t play desperate enough.”
It was the first-ever matchup of top-15 teams in WCC history, and it was a mismatch. Three weeks after the Gaels beat Gonzaga 74-71 in Spokane, they never led on the
way to their first defeat in 77 days.
“The streak doesn’t matter to us at all,” Landale said. “They’re a great team, and there’s not much difference between the two of us.”
There was on this night. The Gaels arrived at one of the biggest games in school history fueled by on offense rated as the third most efficient in the nation. But that efficiency was based on the consistent effectiveness of Landale, the presumed WCC Player of the Year, and a cadre of 3-point marksmen.
Neither option worked on Saturday. The Bulldogs sent a second defender hard at Landale every time the 6-foot-11 center touched the ball near the paint. He had 26 points in the first meeting, but the league’s top scorer and rebounder got off just one shot in the first half and finished the game with a seasonlow four points on 2-for-4 shooting to go with 10 rebounds, four blocks and four assists.
Seniors Emmett Naar and Calvin Hermanson combined for just eight points on 3-for-15 shooting, and the Gaels converted just 5 of 20 from the 3-point arc.
“The way they were doubling, he’s got to throw out and other guys have to make plays,” Bennett said of Landale. “I thought Jock … did his job. Guys got to make shots, guys got to make plays.”
Gonzaga (23-4, 13-1), which has won or shared 16 of the past 17 WCC regular-season titles, now has a piece of the league’s top spot with the Gaels (24-3, 13-1), who were hoping to position themselves for just their second outright conference title this century.
Three different Gonzaga players hit 3-pointers in the opening 2 minutes of the game and the Bulldogs stifled the Gaels’ attack from the start.
“That set the tone that our defense was going to be good and we kept doing it,” Gonzaga coach Mark Few said.
The Division I leader in field-goal accuracy at 52.8 percent, the Saint Mary’s converted just 37.5 percent in the first half when Gonzaga forged a 42-30 lead.
The Bulldogs built the margin to 22 points midway through the second period. The Gaels closed to 15 in the final 5 minutes but never really made it a game.
Jordan Ford scored 17 points to lead the Gaels. Four Gonzaga players scored in double figures, including Rui Hachimura, who had 21.
Landale, who has scored at least 30 points seven times this season, wasn’t given space to breathe. Johnathan Williams covered him much of the night, but a guard quickly dropped down aggressively to double, forcing him to give up the ball.
“In big games like that, guys can’t shy away from the big stage,” Landale said. “That’s not what Saint Mary’s is about.”