Gonzaga pulls away late to beat USF in WCC semifinals
Saint Mary’s holds off BYU to reach WCC title game
LAS VEGAS, March 7, (AP): Anton Watson scored 20 points and Drew Timme had 17 to help No. 9 Gonzaga beat pesky San Francisco 84-73 on Monday night and advance to yet another West Coast Conference championship game.
The Bulldogs (27-5) will face No. 16 Saint Mary’s (26-6) on Tuesday for the tournament title. The teams split two regular-season meetings.
Julian Strawther scored 15 points while playing in his hometown and Ben Gregg had 12 for Gonzaga.
Khalil Shabazz led San Francisco (20-14) with 26 points. Tyrell Roberts scored 17 and Marcus Williams 11.
Gonzaga is in the conference championship game for the 26th time in a row. The Zags have won this event 20 times.
They enter on an eight-game winning streak. Gonzaga’s last loss? In overtime at Saint Mary’s.
Getting to this championship game was anything but easy against San Francisco, which was the sixth seed and beat third-seeded Santa Clara 93-87 on Saturday. Shabazz scored a career-high 38 points in that game, and he was quite a handful for Gonzaga.
Shabazz kept the Dons within striking distance most of the night. San Francisco pulled to 56-54 with 11:59 left, but Gonzaga then eased away to secure the victory.
Saint Mary’s played the first 25 minutes Monday night like a team capable of winning the West Coast Conference Tournament and making a deep run in the NCAAs.
Then the 16th-ranked Gaels almost blew it.
They let a 26-point lead get down to three before holding off BYU to win 76-69 and advance to their fourth WCC title game in five years.
“I think we lost focus a little bit,” coach Randy Bennett said. “They got some momentum and (that) gave them some hope. We were really good for 25 minutes. We need to get a lot better at closing out things.”
BASKETBALL
BYU (19-15) will wait to see if the NIT has a spot. The Cougars have a NET ranking of No. 85, so they are at best on the bubble. If they don’t make the postseason, this was their last game as a WCC team; the program joins the Big 12 Conference next season.
Alex Ducas led Saint Mary’s with 23 points, Aidan Mahaney scored 18, Mitchell Saxen had 12 and Logan Johnson 10.
Spencer Johnson led BYU with 13 points, Richie Saunders scored 11 and Rudi Williams added 10.
It was BYU’s first loss on a neutral court this season after going 7-0, including 3-0 in Las Vegas. The Cougars beat then-No. 21 Creighton in November
and won their first two games of this tournament.
Both regular-season games between Saint Mary’s and BYU were close, with the Gaels winning them by a combined seven points.
The third meeting looked like a runaway early. Saint Mary’s went an 11-1 spurt to go up 20-8 and ended the first half with a five-point possession thanks to a dead-ball technical to go into halftime ahead 37-20.
BYU also went into a cold spell, going scoreless between a basket from Jaxson Robinson with 4:54 left in the first half until Spencer Johnson’s layup 11 seconds into the second period.
Saint Mary’s went ahead by 26 in the second half before the Cougars put together a 10-point run, cutting the deficit to 56-40. The Gaels played the remainder of the game as if they couldn’t wait for Tuesday, and BYU went on a nine-point spurt to get to 64-56 with 4:50 left.
“It’s who our guys have been all year,” BYU coach Mark Pope said. “They care about each other and care about winning. There have been times we haven’t performed well this year and these guys come back.”
The Cougars got within 72-69 with 32.1 seconds to go before Kyle Bowen made a fast-break layup and Mahaney sank a free throw to give Saint Mary’s some breathing room again.
“It shows a lot of experience from the guys and maturity,” Ducas said of finding a way in the end. “It was not the way we wanted to win, but we’ll take it.”