WCC Basketball Fans

When the Gonzaga Bulldogs won their tenth regular season WCC conference championship in a row last week, there wasn’t much doubt that they would go on to win the WCC conference tournament as well.  That all changed Monday night in Las Vegas when they met the Gaels of St Mary’s.

In what was a very sloppy, yet high paced first half on Monday night where both teams shot just over 30% from the floor, St Mary’s if anything proved they could play with the No. 14 Bulldogs.  As the game progressed, they started looking like they were the team with the easy at large bid into this year’s tournament.

Without getting much production from their top scorer Omar Samhan in the first half, the Gaels had to look to other options.  Mickey McConnell decided that he would be one of them, dumping in 26 points going 10-17 from the field.  Ben Allen also got into the mix scoring a season high 20 points, shooting a robust 4-6 from three point land.

The Bulldogs seemed to have no answer for the Gaels one two punch, and when Samhan found his rhythm, it was all but over for Gonzaga.  They were outscored by 18 points in the second half, and failed to get any open looks from the floor.  The lone bright spot for the Bulldogs was Steven Gray, who finished with 16 points on 5-9 shooting.

This takes away the sour taste left from last season when St Mary’s was denied an NCAA tournament bid to the chagrin of both players and fans.  This year there is nothing that could keep St Mary’s out of the tournament, and after watching them blowout the cream of the WCC last night, I don’t think their will be too many people opposing that fact.

However, with every positive comes a negative.  With St Mary’s receiving an automatic bid, that leaves one less at large bid for one of the 15+ “Bubble Teams,” assuming St Mary’s would not have made it in without defeating Gonzaga last night. However, last night they not only proved they belong in the tournament, they showed that they might give some teams a run for their money come late March.

By: Eugene Brooks
DFN Sports Staff Writer