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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

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St. Mary’s turns out to be the SAT for Gonzaga

Gonzaga forward Kyle Wiltjer, right, looks to shoot the ball over Saint Mary’s forward Desmond Simmons during first-half action. (Associated Press)
Gonzaga forward Kyle Wiltjer, right, looks to shoot the ball over Saint Mary’s forward Desmond Simmons during first-half action. (Associated Press)

A GRIP ON SPORTS • So much for "the-Zags-don't-get-tested-in-conference" theory. Read on.

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• Tested may not be the right word for what happened to Gonzaga last night. Mark Few described it as "They came out and just punched us right in the face and punched us in the gut, then stepped on us." Ya, that seems about right. St. Mary's attacked with Brad Waldow early, then began raining 3s. Before the Bulldogs knew it, St. Mary's – needing an NCAA-statement win – had built a 17-point first-half lead. Coming back to win from that would be a test, that's for sure. A test Gonzaga would pass. The Gaels' lead was 11 at halftime, when Patty Mills' number was retired. The lead was one before Mills got back to his seat with Manu Ginobili and a couple other Spurs. The Zags' 10-point run to open the second half was probably the biggest streak they've put together this season. It got them back into the game – despite St. Mary's rebuilding a nine-point lead as the second-half wore on – and made the Gaels' aware of what was in store. And what was in store was a last six minutes that saved the Zags' No. 1-seed potential. Another 10-point run put GU on top. And a 12-point run to close out the game finished off the Gaels' faint NCAA at-large hopes. If you are keeping score at home, in three combined stretches after halftime, Gonzaga outscored the Gaels 32-0. That's what the second (or third) ranked team in the nation does. The crowd is loud, the home team is pumped, the nation is on upset alert and the better team calmly takes the game in hand. It's something Zag fans probably questioned if their team could do. It can. Another test passed.

• It's Oscar night, so John Blanchette decided to hand out his awards. Even Neil Patrick Harris would have trouble keeping a straight face while opening these envelopes.

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• WSU: The Cougars host Washington in a pair of games today, with the women up first then the men getting together. As Jacob Thorpe wrote in this blog post, expect the attendance to be WSU's best of the season. Jacob also has an advance of the men's game in today's paper and will be back before the game with his morning post featuring links to Pac-12 action.

• Gonzaga: Of course Jim Meehan was in the rafters at St. Mary's last night and he has the game story and blog post from the comeback. He will also have a blog post this morning looking back at the win that clinched the WCC regular-season crown. ... The Gonzaga women had no comeback in the tank after clinching the WCC title Thursday night. Tom Clouse was at the Kennel as Pacific hounded the Zags, 71-59, and has this game story. Tyler Tjomsland also has a photo report. ... The Gonzaga baseball team swept a doubleheader. ... In other WCC action, Pacific found a way to upset Portland at home.

• EWU: The shots wouldn't fall yesterday for Eastern Washington so the Eagles fell, 73-69 to Northern Arizona and fell a half-game out of first in the Big Sky. ... The Eastern women, however, won their sixth consecutive game. ... Around the Big Sky Conference, Sacramento State and Montana leapfrogged the Eagles, with the Hornets defeating North Dakota, 74-66, and the Griz stopping Weber State, 74-63.

• Idaho: The Vandals lost their second game of the road trip, falling to Southern Utah 79-77 in overtime.

• Whitworth: The Pirates won their sixth consecutive NWC mens' title with a 66-63 victory at Puget Sound.

• Chiefs: Another game, another shutout suffered by the Chiefs, their sixth in a little more than a month. Chris Derrick has the story and a blog post on 5-0 loss to Kootenay. ... Portland picked up a Saturday night win while Everett and Tri-City lost.

• Preps: It was a busy Saturday in the prep ranks, with the Tacoma Dome seeing the crowning of state wrestling champions. Greg Lee was there and he has a story on the 4A champions, the tough 3A runner-up finish for North Central, Freeman winning the 1A title and the 2B/1B matches. Greg also has a blog post with all the results. ... There was also regional wrestling in Idaho. ... The gymnastics individual champions were crowned. ... The Idaho girls finished up their basketball season, with Timberlake finishing second in 3A once again. ... The CV boys earned the lone state playoff spot in the 4A boys ranks. Tom Clouse has the story. ... We also can offer a roundup of other area basketball action as well as a list of all the state loser-out games this week.

• Seahawks: There is a report out there the Hawks and Marshawn Lynch have agreed to a new contract. Lynch's agent has denied it. But Seattle is willing to give Lynch more money next year, that's for sure. ... The Hawks are paying attention at the NFL combine.

• Mariners: The baseball season is underway, in a let's-get-ready-for-the-year sort-of way. Larry Stone loves spring training and pens an ode to it today. ... Ryan Divish has notes on the first day of workouts for pitchers and catchers while Bob Dutton takes some time to look at the M's question marks. ... Tom Wilhelmsen lost his arbitration case. All the right-handed reliever will make this year is $1.4 million. ... There will be some new speed-up rules this season.

• Sounders: Seattle used a different sort of formation yesterday in their 3-2 exhibition loss to Salt Lake City, something Sigi Schmid wanted to look at but isn't sold on using.

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• It's Sunday. Enjoy the day. We'll be back tomorrow. Until then ...



Vince Grippi
Vince Grippi is a freelance local sports blogger for spokesman.com. He also contributes to the SportsLink Blog.

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