Gonzaga's women took control with a 12-2 run late in the first half to build an 11-point lead and the Bulldogs went on to a comfortable 62-43 victory over fourth-seeded BYU in the WCC Tournament semfinals on Saturday at the Orleans Arena.

Shelby Cheslek led GU with 16 points. Kiara Kudron added a season-high eight points, six in Gonzaga's decisive run at the close the first half. The top-seeded Bulldogs will face No. 2 San Diego, which routed No. 3 Saint Mary's, for the championship at 1 Monday.

Taelor Karr, the WCC player of the year, landed hard on her lower back after being fouled by a Cougar player with 7 minutes left in the first half. Karr returned to the game several minutes later and also played in the second half, but she was taken for further medical evaluation following the game.

My unedited game story is below.

Gonzaga's men are about 15 minutes from starting. In-game updates at twitter.com/srjimm.

Gonzaga has played better – much better – but even without its ‘A’ game (B-minus perhaps?), it still had enough to defeat BYU 70-65 on Thursday.

Hopping on another flight, so we'll get right to it. Here are the links: S-R game story, Salt Lake Tribune here and here, and AP.

Read on for my day-after post.

Read on for my unedited game story from GU's 70-65 win over BYU on Thursday.

And check back tomorrow for a day-after BYU post and a feature on GU's three seniors as they prepare for their final home game against Portland on Saturday.

By Jim Meehan

jimm@spokesman.com, (208) 765-7131

PROVO, Utah – The Gonzaga Bulldogs stated their case for the No. 1 ranking in college basketball by doing what they’ve done for most of the season.

The Bulldogs defended, took care of the ball and repeatedly came up with clutch baskets. Kelly Olynyk had another solid game. GU’s deep bench contributed 18 points.

Gonzaga needed all of the above to overcome a sluggish night offensively and the second-ranked Bulldogs held off BYU 70-65 Thursday at a raucous Marriott Center.

And the Bulldogs got help elsewhere.

Earlier in the week, No. 1 Indiana lost to Minnesota. Shortly before Gonzaga tipped off against BYU, Virginia’s upset of No. 3 Duke went final, clearing a path for GU to the top spot with a win over the Cougars and another against Portland on Saturday.

The Bulldogs (28-2, 15-0 WCC) got the first part of the job done, holding off a late BYU charge to clinch an outright WCC championship. GU never trailed and led 54-43 with 10:50 remaining, but the Cougars pulled even at 60 with three straight 3-pointers – two by Brock Zylstra and Craig Cusick’s 3 just before the shot-clock expired – and a pair of Brandon Davies free throws.

Elias Harris powered inside for a basket to give Gonzaga a 63-60 lead, but Davies connected on a putback with 2:49 left.

It remained that way as BYU missed four field-goal attempts and GU had a turnover, an errant 3-pointer and a missed free throw. Finally, Olynyk made a 10-footer in the lane and Gonzaga had a 65-62 lead with 43 seconds remaining.

BYU (20-10, 9-6) misfired twice and Mike Hart grabbed a defensive rebound in traffic. Kevin Pangos made two free throws and GU’s lead was 67-62. Cusick made three free throws and Harris hit 1 of 2 foul shots to keep GU in front 68-65 with 6.6 seconds left.

Gonzaga elected to foul before BYU could attempt a tying 3-pointer. Cusick missed the first free throw and Harris made two free throws to seal Gonzaga’s 11^thconsecutive win.

Olynyk finished with 19 points and Gary Bell Jr.  hit four 3s and scored 15 points. GU made a season-low 41.5 percent of its shots. Tyler Haws scored 19 points to lead BYU, which made only 36.5 percent from the field.

The door to the No. 1 ranking is open and second-ranked Gonzaga can state its case with a victory over BYU on Thursday in Provo

No. 1 Indiana lost to Minnesota on Tuesday, which leaves a couple of viable contenders for the top spot: Gonzaga, No. 3 Duke and possibly No. 5 Miami, which tangles with Duke on Saturday. No. 4 Michigan became the latest top 10 team to endure an upset loss, falling to Penn State on Wednesday.

It's possible there could be two different top-ranked teams when the AP and USA Today polls are released Monday. The guess here is if GU and Duke have 2-0 weeks, AP will vote Duke No.1 while the coaches go with Gonzaga.

We address the No. 1 ranking and potential No. 1 seeding in the preview and also have a few notebook items below.

Back with my day-after BYU post following Gonzaga's 83-63 win over the Cougars at the MAC last night. These two programs are used to winning, but they can't seem to play a close game against each other. GU has won three straight, by 11, 19 and 20. BYU won the two before that, by 22 and 10.

Gonzaga was sharp at both ends of the floor, save for 19 turnovers, to keep its WCC record unblemished at 5-0.

The lnks: Game stories from The S-R, A.P. Tacoma News Tribune, Salt Lake Tribune (sidebar here),Daily Herald and Deseret News. S-R photo gallery here.

By the way, GU president Thayne McCulloh's halftime announcement centered on a proposed four-story university center.

One other item: Several sources say that the WCC has re-upped with the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas as the site of the conference's men's and women's tournaments. It's a multi-year deal — my guess is three years, as it was in the previous contract that was set to expire after the 2013 event in March. The WCC explored a few other options — KeyArena in Seattle was one — but the tournaments have been a hit at the Orleans since arriving in 2009.

 Read on.

It was a one-two punch offensively with Kelly Olynyk (26 points) and Elias Harris (25).

It was a one-two-three-four-five punch on defense as Gonzaga held BYU to 63 points, 15 under its season average, and 35.6-percent shooting. The Bulldogs' Gary Bell Jr. (on BYU's Tyler Haws, who had 1 point, 20 below his average) and Elias Harris (on Brandon Davies, who had 14 points, 4 under his average) were outstanding defensively, and they had a lot of help from their teammates.  

The Bulldogs rolled to an 83-63 victory Thursday at the MAC to remain unbeaten in WCC play at 5-0. Saint Mary's is in second place at 5-1. BYU dropped to 5-2.

My unedited game story is below. I'll be back with a day-after post in the a.m.

S-R photojournalist Colin Mulvany covered the GU vs. BYU home game.  Check out this large-format gallery of his photos.

Great, a visit from my old adversary back pain and then I wake up and I have to take a quiz? Man, I thought I was past these things.

The first one is a true pain. The second one, John Blanchette's Gonzaga trivia quiz, is truly hard, but fun. I scored 7 out of 18 — I really wanted to get at least half correct — but the pre-1990s questions buried me. (Yes, I gave myself a half point if I got one of the two required answers). Here are the answers, for AFTER you take the exam! Hint: That guy pictured above is one of the correct answers.

It was open book, er, open media guide, right?

Also, as part of National Gonzaga Day and the school's celebration of 125 years, there was this nugget in a news release: GU President Thayne McCulloh will deliver some good news about Gonzaga’s future during a special halftime program broadcast live over the Internet from the Gonzaga-BYU men’s basketball game.

Moving on. Anyway, here's my GU-BYU preview and a note on Drew Barham, Salt Lake Tribune advance and the re-emergence of point guard Matt Carlino, a Daily Herald preview and a Deseret News preview. I'll be tweeting live in-game updates tonight at twitter.com/SRjimm.

Gonzaga returns to WCC play and tries to put the tough loss to Butler in the rear-view mirror when it entertains BYU on Thursday night.

Here's my game preview that will run in Thursday's S-R.

There's a bit more on the game and a note on Drew Barham below that run on the S-R Four Corners page tomorrow.

COUGARS

FROM PULLMAN -- Yes, game day finally here. And unlike most days, I will actually be awake when this post publishes, en route to the Spokane airport, then en route to Provo. First, we have a prediction for you, as well as a number of links, including content from our football preview section as well as our standard game advance information. Read  on.

COUGARS

FROM PULLMAN — This is why we toil through the winter months out here — it's mid-May, and I'm writing this in the middle of the night with the screen door open and a nice breeze blowing through the apartment. Ahh, summer weather in spring. Read on for some more reading material.

COUGARS

FROM PULLMAN — The Mike Leach era at Washington State will begin two days earlier than originally planned. Read on for more.

On Feb. 25th, BYU had a chance to earn a co-WCC women's regular-season title with a win over Gonzaga but was routed 77-60 in Spokane. The Cougars had another opportunity against GU on Monday and this time they registered a 78-66 victory in the WCC Tournament championship at the Orleans Arena.

The Cougars made 60.4 percent of their shots while keeping GU standout duo Kayla Standish and Katelan Redmon in check. The two combined for just three second-half field goals and were 9 of 27 from the field. BYU earns an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Gonzaga believes it'll make the tournament field, too, but it will have to wait until Monday to find out.

You can read my unedited story below. Chris Anderson's photos can be found here.

Good morning. Gonzaga's men shut down BYU 77-58 and will face Saint Mary's for the WCC Tournament championship on Monday. GU's women outlasted Saint Mary's 83-78 and advance to a title-game matchup with BYU.

A ton of reading material for you from yesterday's semifinals. Here are the men's links: My game story, John Blanchette's column and Chris Anderson's photos. More on GU's win in the Seattle Times. The BYU angle is covered in the Salt Lake Tribune, Deseret News and Daily Herald. Saint Mary's victory over USF was covered by the San Francisco Chronicle and San Jose Mercury News.

Here are the women's links: My game story, Anderson's photos, and a game story from the San Francisco Chronicle.. BYU's victory over San Diego was covered by the Salt Lake Tribune, Deseret News and Daily Herald.

The WCC Website has all kinds of information here.

I'll be back later with previews of Monday's championship contests.

Back with my unedited game story from Gonzaga's 77-58 win over BYU in the men's tournament semifinals on Saturday. You can read it below.

San Diego gave BYU fits for most of the game, but the Cougars dug out a 73-68 win late Friday night to move into the semifinals of the WCC men's basketball tournament against Gonzaga. GU and BYU split two regular-season games.

I filed a short preview of the GU-BYU matchup. You can read the unedited version below.

Any later and this would have been the first day after day-after post, or something like that. But we're back with a day-after BYU post and a quick look at Saturday's game against surprising San Diego.

It's a shorter-than-usual day-after post following Gonzaga’s 74-63 win over BYU last night, the main reason being there's a vast amount of information contained in the numerous articles from the game. The links: S-R game story, Blanchette column, Anderson photos (of course he got Elias Harris' one-hand jam; pictured above). Elsewhere, articles in the Salt Lake Tribune, Deseret News, A.P. and Seattle Times. Here's the rundown on seeding/tiebreakers/scenarios, etc., from the WCC office.

Read on below for more.

Gonzaga earned a season split with BYU with a 74-63 victory Thursday in front of a packed house at the McCarthey Athletic Center.

Elias Harris led the way with 19 points and 16 rebounds and Kevin Pangos added 18 points as the Bulldogs made 36 free throws and limiited BYU to 31-percent shooting.

The victory assures GU of at least a second seed and a bye into the semifinal round of the WCC Tournament.

Here's a link to my game story. Check back tomorrow for a day-after post and a short preview of the San Diego game.

Gonzaga and BYU are going through pre-game warmups at the MAC with tip about 45 minutes away. BYU's Noah Hartsock, who strained his knee in Saturday's win over Santa Clara, is suited up and warming up with a brace/sleeve on his left knee. It looks like he will play.

In-game updates at Twitter.com/srjimm.