Monday, January 23

Loyola Marymount 74, Santa Clara 62

Wednesday, January 25

BYU 70, Virginia Tech 68

Thursday, January 26

Saint Mary’s 71, Loyola Marymount 64

San Diego 65, Pepperdine 56

San Francisco 90, Santa Clara 77

Gonzaga 74, Portland 62

Saturday, January 28

Saint Mary’s 80 BYU 66

Pepperdine 74 Santa Clara 62

Loyola Marymount 62 Portland 59

San Francisco 84 San Diego 70

When it played in the Mountain West Conference, the Brigham Young basketball team rarely lost at home in the Marriott Center, its home building in Provo, Utah. BYU basketball became nearly impregnable on home hardwood, establishing a reputation as a force that could rarely get derailed in the altitude of the Wasatch Mountains and inside an arena packed with fans who are close to the court, bottling up noise and making it reverberate in meaningful moments. BYU was a road trip nobody in the Mountain West felt comfortable making, and so when the Cougars switched to the West Coast Conference, there was little reason to think that things would be different.

The Saint Mary’s Gaels had other ideas.

Saint Mary’s had already mopped the floor with BYU earlier this season in Moraga, California, and the Gaels had also waxed rival Gonzaga in their California home, so the lingering questions of the WCC’s 2012 basketball season concerned the ability of BYU and the Zags to defend their home floors against Saint Mary’s. After this past weekend, it’s clear that BYU was simply not up to the task, leaving the WCC to the two old stand-bys, Saint Mary’s and Gonzaga, over the final month of the season. SMC waltzed into the Marriott Center and produced an easy 14-point win, taking the lead by as many as 23 in the second half before coasting to the finish line in front of a muted crowd in Provo.

What was scary about the win was how the Gaels achieved it – not just the margin of victory, but the people who made it happen. SMC’s main meal-ticket scorer, Matthew Dellavedova, scored only 10 points, most of them in garbage time. He was a non-factor in this contest, something which would have seemed to favor BYU and head coach Dave Rose. Instead, Saint Mary’s – expertly guided by bench boss Randy Bennett – found 16 points from reserve Clint Steindl, who threw a monkey wrench into the Cougars’ defensive scheme. Steindl helped the Gaels hit 7 of 18 threes and spread BYU’s defense on a consistent basis. Saint Mary’s generated such good floor spacing that it was able to hit just over 55 percent of its shots (24 of 43) against BYU, and that kind of display is going to win virtually every time. BYU did not have a better answer on offense, and that was that. The Gaels moved to 21-2 overall and 10-0 in the league; they’re a shoo-in for the NCAA Tournament and are now playing to see just how high their seeding can be (as well as snagging the WCC championship).

If Saint Mary’s can win at Gonzaga in the coming month, the last bit of drama in the WCC regular season will be exhausted. It’s frankly not what was expected when BYU joined this neighborhood of religiously-affiliated schools.

The Gaels won’t exactly mind, however.

Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer

BYU 82, San Diego 63

Thursday, January 19

Loyola Marymount 82, BYU 68

Gonzaga 74, San Francisco 63

Saint Mary’s 61, Pepperdine 47

San Diego 82, Portland 63

Saturday, January 21

Saint Mary’s 93, Santa Clara 77

San Francisco 72, Portland 71

Gonzaga 77, San Diego 60

BYU 77, Pepperdine 64

Something very significant happened in the West Coast Conference this past week, and believe it or not, it had very little to do with longtime league powers Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s. For once, the focus shifted away from Spokane, Washington, and Moraga, California. The main headline in the WCC emerged from its newest college town – Provo, Utah.

The Brigham Young Cougars knew this season that they would have to make do without Jimmer Fredette, the spectacular long-range shooter and basketball magician who catapulted the program to the Sweet 16 and almost made the Elite Eight, falling short in an overtime loss to Florida in New Orleans. Had center Brandon Davies not violated BYU’s school honor code, meriting a suspension for the remainder of the season, the Cougars very easily could have advanced to the Final Four and created an even bigger national brand name as they left the Mountain West Conference and moved to the WCC. As it was, with Davies back from that suspension, BYU still had a fairly solid core in place for this season. Even without Fredette, the Cougars were a threat to bust up the Gonzaga-Saint Mary’s duopoly in the league.

Now, that prospect seems very remote, its chances dimmed by a stunning turn of events in Provo.

BYU simply doesn’t lose very many games at the Marriott Center. The Cougars’ home building, loud and located in a high-altitude setting, has been very difficult for visiting teams over the years. Marriott has become one of the strongholds of college basketball, a place that gets conquered very rarely, and only by really good teams such as the Baylor bunch that won in Provo in December. BYU doesn’t lose conference games at home, but now, that reality has changed, and it wasn’t even Gonzaga or Saint Mary’s who did the deed. The Loyola Marymount Lions, lurking in the shadows, came from nowhere to ambush BYU on Thursday night. It was shocking enough that the Lions won; it was that much more remarkable that they won going away, by 14 points. Coach Max Good’s LMU crew maxed out, humbling the Cougars with an effective offense that cracked 80 points in a very tough building. BYU had already lost at Saint Mary’s and needed to hold the fort at home to have a realistic chance of winning the WCC. This upset loss strips the Cougars of crucial leverage, putting a smile on the faces of Gonzaga and SMC fans who saw their teams win both league games this past week by double-digit margins.

Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer

Monday, January 9

Saint Mary’s 87, San Francisco 72

Thursday, January 12

Saint Mary’s 83, Gonzaga 62

Loyola Marymount 68, Pepperdine 58

San Francisco 104, Portland 70

San Diego 75, Santa Clara 62

Saturday, January 14

San Francisco 78, Pepperdine 63

Saint Mary’s 69, Portland 61

Gonzaga 62, Loyola Marymount 58

BYU 95, Santa Clara 78

It’s becoming harder and harder to contest the claim that Randy Bennett is one of the most underrated coaches in major college basketball. The bench boss of the Saint Mary’s Gaels, who flirted with the Utah job last offseason before staying in Moraga, California, continues to prove that he’s one of the more skilled craftsmen in his profession. The job that Bennett is doing with this year’s Saint Mary’s club is serving to show America just how resourceful he can be.

When Brigham Young moved to the West Coast Conference from the Mountain West, one of the foremost questions on the minds of WCC hoops observers was going to be if Saint Mary’s could maintain its place at the top of the league. Gonzaga has been the lead dog in the WCC over time, with Saint Mary’s joining the Zags in a fierce competition for league bragging rights. SMC hasn’t been quite as consistent as Gonzaga, but did carve out its own independent reputation and identity as a team that could carry its own weight. When Saint Mary’s reached the Sweet 16 in the 2010 NCAA Tournament, Bennett’s star reached its highest point, but after missing the 2011 NCAAs in a somewhat controversial snub, people wondered if the momentum of Bennett’s tenure had run out. Bennett considered other jobs in the offseason, but when he stayed with the Gaels, there were worries that his career wouldn’t be the same… for the wrong reasons. Perhaps his players wouldn’t spill the tank as much for him this season. Perhaps BYU, fresh off its Sweet 16 run in last year’s Big Dance, would crowd out Saint Mary’s and develop its own rivalry with Gonzaga, relegating SMC to third place, and a distant third place at that. BYU’s arrival was a challenge to Gonzaga, but it was a threat to Saint Mary’s. Gonzaga has established a national recruiting profile, while Saint Mary’s – for all its successes in recent years – is still more of a regional team with a pipeline to Australia… not other places in the United States. Brigham Young’s stability in a new-look WCC wasn’t questioned; neither was Gonzaga’s. It was Saint Mary’s which had to find answers this season.

Clearly, Bennett has been up to the task.

Saint Mary’s whacked BYU at home two weeks ago, and this past week, the Gaels hosted Gonzaga to see if their BYU blowout was just one good night at the office or a sign of genuine prowess. Now, after thumping Gonzaga at McKeon Pavilion, SMC has proven to itself and to the rest of the WCC that it’s here to stay. Twin victories – impressive ones, too – over the other big dogs in the conference will calm any fears about the Gaels’ place in this corner of the college basketball world. Bennett has proven that he can win in a deeper and tougher WCC.

Saint Mary’s beat Gonzaga this past Thursday for two reasons: Matthew Dellavedova and Rob Jones. Dellavedova, a veteran guard from Australia, knocked down five threes en route to 26 points, giving the Gaels the scoring punch they required. Jones starred at the defensive end and in other aspects of Thursday’s throwdown. He stuffed Gonzaga’s main pivot player, Robert Sacre, limiting Sacre to just four points on 1-of-7 shooting. Jones scored only two points, but he proved that you can dominate a game without scoring. He collected 11 rebounds and handed out eight assists to give cohesion and conviction to Saint Mary’s throughout the evening in Moraga. Bennett clearly sold Jones on the idea of playing defense to win, and that’s exactly what Jones did in his stellar performance against Sacre.

Randy Bennett and Saint Mary’s have won their two big home games in the WCC season. It’s now up to Gonzaga and BYU to beat SMC at home later in the season.

Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer

Tuesday, January 3

San Francisco 87, Morgan State 74

Thursday, January 5

Saint Mary’s 78, San Diego 72

Gonzaga 73, Pepperdine 45

BYU 73, Loyola Marymount 65

Portland 84, Santa Clara 74

Saturday, January 7

BYU 81, San Francisco 56

Gonzaga 82, Santa Clara 60

Portland 53, Pepperdine 43

Loyola Marymount 79, San Diego 68

If the old West Coast Conference isn’t very different from the new West Coast Conference, you don’t need to rub your eyes or wonder if this is real life. Yes, the new order is really the old order, with Brigham Young merely joining the fray. It’s still a Gonzaga-and-Saint-Mary’s kind of league, with the new Mormon addition to this religiously-oriented collection of schools adding a new dimension to the conference.

This past week, the two longtime kings of the WCC held court and took care of business. Saint Mary’s went on the road and held off San Diego, keeping the Torreros at the bottom of the WCC. SMC wasn’t at its best, but it still managed to get a win away from home and survive on a night when San Diego was trying to make a season-long statement that would resound through the rest of the conference. Saint Mary’s and Gonzaga are both teams who play road games that feel like the Super Bowl for their foes. This is what makes the WCC grind more imposing for the Gaels and Bulldogs, but it’s also the very thing which makes SMC and GU so much more impressive. Saint Mary’s has become accustomed to receiving the hardest punches from its opponents, and this well-established resilience came in handy against San Diego, whose coach, Billy Grier, was as former assistant for current Gonzaga head coach Mark Few. The time clock is running out on Grier, but it’s still with SMC coach Randy Bennett, who resisted other offers and overtures to stay in Moraga, California.

Gonzaga also won this past week, waxing Pepperdine and Santa Clara to affirm its place at the top of the WCC. Pepperdine, Santa Clara, and San Diego all lost two games this past week while the familiar faces – Gonzaga and SMC – maintained control. Newcomer BYU also thumped San Francisco, giving more credence to the belief that what was a two-team league will now become a three-team tussle heading into March.

Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer

Tuesday, December 27

BYU 79, CS San Marcos 51

Loyola Marymount 100, Vanguard 74

Wednesday, December 28

Gonzaga 90, Portland 51

Thursday, December 29

Pepperdine 77, San Francisco 61

Santa Clara 75, Eastern Michigan 55

Saint Mary’s 98, BYU 82

Friday, December 30

Wagner 64, Santa Clara 62

Saturday, December 31

BYU 88, San Diego 52

Saint Mary’s 74, Pepperdine 45

Loyola Marymount 77, San Francisco 76 (OT)

Gonzaga 72, Xavier 65

If the past week showed the nation anything, it’s that the old guard in the West Coast Conference is playing with a lot of competitive pride and the resilience which flows from it. The Brigham Young Cougars entered the WCC this season intent on making a mark in this league rich with religiously-affiliated schools. The WCC is substantially comprised of Catholic schools, plus protestant school Pepperdine. BYU brought a Mormon flavor into this corner of the college basketball world, and the upwardly mobile program wanted to be able to make a statement to the power establishment of the conference. This week showed, though, that BYU’s ascendancy isn’t going to come easily.

On Thursday night, Saint Mary’s – one of the two premier programs in the conference over the past several years – whacked BYU by 16 points in Moraga, California. The Gaels were geared up for this game on their home court; coach Randy Bennett’s club was clearly lying in the weeds, waiting to spring an ambush and make a strong, resonant statement to its guest from Provo, Utah. Rob Jones led Saint Mary’s with 24 points and 15 boards, but that was just the start of the party for the Gaels. SMC hit 55 percent of its field goal attempts and shot the cover off the ball from 3-point range, hitting 12 of 25 triples. Yet, while dominating on the perimeter, SMC also cleaned up in the paint, powering the ball to the basket for 30 free throw attempts, roughly double BYU’s comparatively paltry total of 16. The Gaels also forced 15 BYU turnovers in what was a comprehensive smackdown. BYU made the Sweet 16 last year and come oh-so-close to playing Butler in the Elite Eight. The Cougars did far more than Saint Mary’s did last season. However, this game shows that the Gaels are still a force to be reckoned with in the WCC.

The other powerhouse in the West Coast Conference is Gonzaga, the league’s main standard-bearer. GU is steadily building a resume that might be able to get the Zags an at-large invite to the NCAA Tournament. A thumping of Portland was just the warm-up act for a Saturday win against Xavier in Cincinnati on the Musketeers’ home court. Gonzaga was sluggish and uninspired early in December, but the Bulldogs have certainly picked up steam over the past two weeks.

Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer

Monday, December 19

Utah 72, Portland 67
Saint Mary’s 74, Kennesaw State 51

Tuesday, December 20

BYU 93, Buffalo 78
Gonzaga 71, Butler 55
Saint Mary’s 77, Eastern Washington 61

Wednesday, December 21

Morgan State 69, Loyola Marymount 45

Houston Baptist 72, Santa Clara 71

Thursday, December 22

Baylor 72, Saint Mary’s 59

South Alabama 68, San Diego 62

Holy Cross 88, San Francisco 83

BYU 89, UC Santa Barbara 75

Nevada 78, Portland 60

Washington State 67, Pepperdine 56

Gonzaga 70, Air Force 60

Friday, December 23

Saint Mary’s 77, Missouri State 61

If the past weekend offered any indication of how the West Coast Conference regular season is going to turn out, it is that the Gonzaga Bulldogs are finding their legs. The Zags lost in Spokane to Michigan State earlier in December and looked to be teetering a bit. It’s still unclear as to how prolific this team will be under coach Mark Few, but the past week certainly solidified the Zags’ standing in the college basketball realm. GU produced two victories over non-cupcake opponents. The Thursday win over Air Force was a rather ho-hum affair, but last Tuesday’s 16-point smackdown of Butler could very well carry some mileage for the program. Gonzaga’s size and length bothered Butler throughout that contest. Robert Sacre and the Zags’ other big men were too much for Butler, which has not been as imposing as it was in the previous two seasons but still carried a reputation into Tuesday’s tilt. Butler had beaten Purdue the previous Saturday in Indianapolis to resurrect the good vibes which accompanied the program’s dizzying runs to two straight NCAA national championship games. Gonzaga faced a very confident BU bunch when tip-off time arrived. The Zags’ ability to so comprehensively dismiss Butler – in a game that was never terribly close over the final seven minutes – could really allow Few’s forces to gain momentum just before the WCC season begins.

Elsewhere in the league, Saint Mary’s missed its big chance to improve its NCAA Tournament resume. The Gaels lost to Baylor, the same program that knocked coach Randy Bennett’s bunch out of the 2010 NCAA Tournament in the Sweet Sixteen. Baylor is simply a balanced and loaded team at all five positions, and the Bears’ weapons were too much for an SMC squad which is not as talented as it used to be. Saint Mary’s did beat Missouri State on Friday, but that’s an NIT-level win, not an NCAA one.

Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer

Tuesday, December 13

UC Santa Barbara 65, San Diego 61

Santa Clara 84, Pacifica 59

Saint Mary’s 77, Jackson State 53

Thursday, December 15

Gonzaga 67, Oral Roberts 61

Saint Mary’s 84, North Carolina A&T 45

Saturday, December 17

Baylor 86, BYU 83

Gonzaga 71, Arizona 60

Santa Clara 78, Pacific 76 (OT)

Stanford 75, San Diego 55

Montana 80, Portland 65

San Francisco 66, Menlo College 36

Saint Mary’s 77, Bethune-Cookman 52

Sunday, December 18

Florida State 77, Loyola Marymount 61

Pepperdine 59, Montana State 36

If the past weekend offered any indication of how the West Coast Conference regular season is going to turn out, WCC fans are going to be in for a thrilling ride. The addition of Brigham Young’s basketball program to the conference has given Gonzaga, the longtime standard-bearer, a new team to watch for. Hoops junkies are anxious to see how the Gonzaga-BYU clash will play out in the coming months, and so it’s worth noting that even though BYU lost and Gonzaga won this past weekend, it’s BYU – the newcomer to the league – which showed more long-term promise and potential.

BYU put up a great fight against the No. 7 Baylor Bears before losing at home by three points in a hard-fought and captivating contest at the Marriott Center in Provo, Utah. It’s true that BYU rarely loses at home, which makes the outcome a downer for the Cougars and their fans. However, a BYU team which lost the national player of the year, Jimmer Fredette, has to be greatly encouraged that it could play so well and competitively against a top-10 team that appears to have a great shot at the Final Four this season.

Baylor owns a number of complementary pieces plus the star power of Perry Jones III, making the Bears one of the more complete teams in the country. However, BYU kept pace with Baylor throughout Saturday afternoon’s showdown. Thanks to the length of center Brandon Davies and the shooting of freshman guard Matt Carlino (7-of-14 from the field), BYU was formidable on the boards and from the perimeter against Baylor. The Cougars showed a level of balance that coach Dave Rose couldn’t have counted on before the season began. Baylor, up 79-70, watched BYU make a 13-5 run to slice the Bears’ lead to 84-83 in the final minute. A Jones tip-in gave Baylor a three-point lead before guard Pierre Jackson blocked a tying 3-point attempt by Davies just before the final horn sounded. The loss stung in the short term for BYU, but the Cougars will use this performance as a springboard for their season.

Gonzaga wasn’t as dynamic as BYU was, but the Zags weren’t playing Baylor. They faced the unranked Arizona Wildcats and frolicked for most of the afternoon in a relatively comfortable 11-point triumph. Gonzaga’s Elias Harris scored 25 points on 11-of-15 shooting, while three teammates on the Bulldogs’ roster scored at least 10 points. Gonzaga’s defense held Arizona to only nine free throw attempts while the Zags earned 32 foul shots. The battle between Gonzaga and BYU can’t get here soon enough.

Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer

The Brigham Young Cougars defeated the Gonzaga Bulldogs to secure their first trip to the Sweet 16 in 30 years. It was three decades to the day of the Cougars’ last win in the second round of NCAA Tournament. Jimmer Fredette, the nation’s leading scorer, poured in 34 points and hit seven three-pointers as the third-seeded Cougars rolled to the easy victory. In the two squads’ first-round contests, the Bulldogs looked nearly invincible while BYU had some problems with Wofford. Many analysts had already advanced Gonzaga to the Sweet 16. BYU had different plans, however. The Cougars maxed out against the overwhelmed Zags, hitting 14 three-pointers as a team and dominating the second half by extending their lead to as many as 24. Gonzaga was unable to stop the continual pressure BYU applied on the perimeter and wilted in the second half as the pro-BYU Pepsi Center clearly affected the tone and tenor of the game. The Bulldogs finished the season at 25-10. BYU advances to face second-seeded Florida next Thursday in the Southeast Regional semifinals.

There is only one sheriff in the West Coast Conference and its name is Gonzaga.
Despite a mid-season struggle which saw the ten-time defending conference champions lose three straight games and see their dominance of conference brethren seemingly come to an end, the Bulldogs from Spokane found the gumption needed to revive their season and finish with a bang.

After fighting back to claim a share of the WCC regular season title with rival Saint Mary’s, Gonzaga put a capstone on the tremendous season-long comeback with an impressive victory over the Gaels in the West Coast Conference Tournament championship game at Orleans Arena in Las Vegas on Monday evening.

The first half was home to solid basketball on both sides. It was a welcome relief after both teams’ subpar semifinal performances the night before. If the West Coast Conference semifinals showed both teams’ deficiencies, the West Coast Conference final showed off both teams’ strengths. The first half of basketball was nothing short of breathtaking. Both offenses flowed at a high pace, the floor was littered with players from both sides scrambling for loose balls, and the overall performance of each squad’s go-to guys was not in question.

The second half showed the nation who the superior team was. Gonzaga, aided by an immense size advantage to begin with, was further helped when a number of SMC’s big men got into foul trouble. Gael forward Rob Jones, the only major low-post presence for the backcourt-centric squad, was weighed down with four fouls for a good portion of the second half and subsequently fouled out with over five minutes remaining. His teammate Mitchell Young also fouled out. These losses of personnel were fatal for the Gaels, who continually gave up second-chance points and eventually the game as a whole.

With the score tied at 53, the Bulldogs unleashed an 8-0 run to put the Gaels on the ropes. A small Saint Mary’s counterpunch, highlighted by Clint Steindl’s three-pointer, cut the Gonzaga lead to just three. The Gaels would get no closer, however. Using a newfound closing prowess that hadn’t existed until just a few weeks ago, the Bulldogs executed down the stretch, both in the halfcourt and at the charity stripe, to secure their 10th West Coast Conference Tournament title in the past 13 contested. Head coach Mark Few will sleep well tonight knowing that his squad is dancing for the 13th consecutive season.

Saint Mary’s head coach Randy Bennett, on the other hand, will toss and turn for the better part of a week as the NCAA Tournament destiny of his Gaels is squarely in the purview of the selection committee. The bubble hasn’t been a friendly locale for the squad from Moraga, as Saint Mary’s was overlooked just two years ago when placed in a similar situation.

Gonzaga has no such worries. The Bulldogs put down the insurrection inside their domain and sent yet another message to the West Coast Conference in general. The honor and privilege of WCC champion is a distinction that still has to be earned by going through Gonzaga.

Zach Bloxham
DFN Sports Staff Writer

It was as if neither Gonzaga or San Francisco wanted to punch a ticket to the West Coast Conference Tournament final. One of these squads was the 10-time defending conference champion. If anything, the Bulldogs should be poised and undeterred in a tense situation like the one they faced on Sunday night. Yet, they looked anything but. The other was a Don squad looking to make its first WCC final in 13 years. San Francisco looked every bit the inexperienced ballclub unready for the spotlight of big-time college basketball. In the end, it was experience and a little bad luck which won the day as the second-seeded Bulldogs, in front of a partisan Orleans Arena crowd, moved into the WCC final for the 14th straight time.

Gonzaga burst out of the gate with a mix of inside and outside shooting. Head coach Mark Few had to be pleased with the way his club shared the ball and found the open man. The Bulldogs have used a balanced scoring attack all season and Sunday night in Las Vegas was no different. Gonzaga jumped out to a 10-point halftime lead (35-25) and extended it to as many as 13 in the second half. It was as if the Bulldogs, who have become accustomed to this position, put the caravan on cruise control. It nearly cost them the game. It nearly cost them a chance to play in the NCAA Tournament.

The Dons responded as every solid underdog does, by chipping away and giving itself a chance to win in the final stages. That is exactly what head coach Rex Walters’s club did. Trailing by 10 points with a little over seven minutes remaining, the Dons answered with a 9-1 run to trim the lead to just two points with under three minutes to play. Following back-to-back missed Gonzaga jumpers, the Dons had two chances to tie or take the lead. This is the moment when the Dons, in a key moment for the first time in years, blinked. Back-to-back Rashad Green turnovers and a head-scratching foul with 42 seconds remaining helped seal the Dons’ fate.
Gonzaga was led by Maquise Carter and his team-high 18 points, 10 of which came from the charity stripe. Carter was a big key down the stretch, as it fell on his shoulders to close out the upset-minded Dons from the free throw line. Even with Carter’s clutch shooting, the Bulldogs seemingly tried to give the contest away. Leading by six with 9 seconds left, San Francisco’s Michael Williams hit a three-pointer to cut the gap in half. On the ensuring inbound, Gonzaga turned the ball over to the Dons. While lying on the floor with the ball in his hands, San Francisco guard Rashad Green called a timeout his team did not have in the arsenal, although conflicting reports later said that a member of the San Francisco bench called the timeout. At any rate, a Chris Webber-like technical foul was assessed (akin to the 1993 NCAA national championship game between Webber’s Michigan team and the University of North Carolina), and any chance at a San Francisco upset disappeared.

The Bulldogs live to fight another day and will face top-seeded Saint Mary’s on Monday night for the West Coast Conference Tournament championship, with the winner securing an automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament. The loser will be forced to hand its fate to the selection committee. The top-seeded teams looked equal parts good and bad during their semifinal games on Sunday. On Monday a champion will be crowned in Vegas, and if last night’s action was any indication, it will be the team who can rectify its failings and put together a full forty minutes of fundamental basketball.

West Coast Conference Championship – Las Vegas, NV
Monday, March 7 – ESPN
(2) Gonzaga vs. (1) Saint Mary’s, 9:05 p.m. ET

Zach Bloxham
DFN Sports Staff Writer