Fitz Accepts Early Retirement San Diego Ends Coach’s Tenure By Eliminating Gu At Wcc Tourney

From that moment two years ago, when he first announced he would retire at the end of the current college basketball season, Dan Fitzgerald knew there were only two ways his Gonzaga coaching career could end.

With either a national championship or a loss.

OK, make that one way realistically.

And that’s how it ended Saturday night, when Fitzgerald’s fifth-seeded Bulldogs failed to capitalize on some crucial scoring chances late in the game and lost to fourth-seeded San Diego 64-59 in the opening round of the West Coast Conference Tournament at Loyola Marymount’s Gersten Pavilion.

Reserve center Brian Miles scored 19 points for USD (17-10), and teammates Sean Flannery and Brian Bruso added 12 and 11 apiece as the Toreros won for the sixth straight time and swept their three games against GU (15-12) this season.

The victory moved USD into the semifinals, where it will face third-seeded San Francisco tonight at 8. Host Loyola Marymount, which stunned top-seeded Santa Clara in Saturday’s only upset, will face No. 2-seeded Saint Mary’s in today’s first semifinal matchup at 5:30 p.m.

The Bulldogs, despite the 26-point effort of senior Lorenzo Rollins, head home, wondering what might have been had they converted any three shots that would have either tied the game or given them the lead in the final minute.

After fighting back from a couple of double-digit deficits in the first half, GU closed to within 59-57 on a short pull-up jumper by Matt Santangelo with 1:23 left.

The Toreros did their part on their next two possessions, missing the front ends of bonus free-throw situations. But the Bulldogs came up empty on three looks that could have altered the outcome.

With less than a minute remaining, Rollins, who was 11 of 21 from the field, missed a fallaway 3-pointer with the shot clock running down. Santangelo misfired on a short baseline jumper and a 3-pointer from the right wing in the final 12 seconds.

The last miss would have tied it at 60, but after it failed to drop, Miles drilled four consecutive free throws to ice the win.

“We didn’t handle the clock real well at the end,” admitted Fitzgerald, who closed the books on his 15-year GU coaching career with a record of 254-169. “I thought Matt’s (baseline jumper) was a pretty good look when we were down two, but they did a pretty good job of contesting our shots.”

Santangelo said he “thought for sure that one was going down.”

But it rimmed out, leaving the Bulldogs’ freshman point guard with only seven points to go along with six assists and five turnovers. His lack of production was not the difference, however, according to Rollins.

“Their experience up front is tough for us,” explained the 6-foot-4 shooting guard. “We’re so young across the board, and their seniors (Flannery and Bruso) played a heck of a game tonight. Bruso and Miles are so tough down low, so smart on the blocks.”

Fitzgerald agreed.

“Their big kids have been able to handle our big kids inside, and that puts a lot of pressure on Matt,” he said.

Still, the Bulldogs ended up with three more field goals than the Toreros. But they made only 9 of 13 free throws to USD’s 17 of 25.

“I’ve heard all week from people how tough it is to beat the same team three times in the same season,” USD coach Brad Holland said after the most competitive game of the opening round. “And I think we proved that.

“It was pretty evident that these were two evenly matched teams. And to pull the hat trick … we just had to find a way to do that.”

The Toreros did it mainly with defense, holding GU to 29.2 percent shooting in the second half. The Bulldogs made only 7 of 24 shots after intermission and finished with Rollins as their only double-figure scorer.

GU was also hindered by foul problems that claimed the services of starters Mike Leasure and Bakari Hendrix and reserve center Jeremy Eaton late in the game.

Afterward, Fitzgerald said it was still too early to sort out his feelings.

“I’ve told the guys in the locker room that it’s never about me,” he said. “The guys I feel for are Lorenzo, Kevin (Williams) and John (Nemeth). You always feel for the seniors.”

San Diego 64, Gonzaga 59

Gonzaga (15-12) - Leasure 3-7 3-4 9, Hendrix 2-2 0-0 4, Dench 0-4 0-0 0, Santangelo 3-9 0-0 7, Rollins 11-21 2-2 26, Eaton 1-3 1-3 3, Nemeth 0-2 1-2 1, Frahm 2-4 2-2 6, Williams 1-1 0-0 3, Griffin 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 23-53 9-13 59.

San Diego (17-10) - B. Smith 1-2 1-2 3, Flannery 5-10 0-0 12, Bruso 4-7 3-5 11, Jacobsen 3-9 1-2 9, L. Smith 1-4 0-0 2, Miles 4-6 9-11 19, Davis 2-5 1-3 6, Obasohan 0-3 0-0 0, Knoll 0-0 2-2 2. Totals 20-46 17-25 64.

Halftime-San Diego 42, Gonzaga 34. 3-Point goals-Gonzaga 4-13 (Rollins 2-6, Williams 1-1, Santangelo 1-4, Leasure 0-2), San Diego 7-21 (Miles 2-2, Jacobsen 2-4, Flannery 2-6, Davis 1-3, L. Smith 0-3, Obasohan 0-3). Fouled out-Leasure, Hendrix, Eaton. Rebounds-Gonzaga 31 (Leasure, Rollins 6), San Diego 32 (Bruso 6). Assists-Gonzaga 17 (Santangelo 6), San Diego 10 (Jacobsen, Davis 3). Total fouls-Gonzaga 25, San Diego 16. A-2,432.

Loyola Marymount 70, Santa Clara 61

Kenny Hotopp scored eight of his 24 points during a 22-3 run at the start of the second half as the Lions (7-20) upset the Broncos (16-11).

The Lions are hosting the event for the first time since 1990 when their star forward, Hank Gathers, collapsed from a heart arrhythmia during a semifinal game against Portland and was pronounced dead less than 2 hours later.

The rest of that tournament was canceled and the Lions were declared champions, going on to the final eight of the NCAA Tournament before losing to eventual national champion UNLV.

A brief moment of silence was observed by the crowd of 2,150 at Gersten Pavilion in memory of Gathers about 10 minutes before the Lions and Broncos tipped off.

No host team has won the championship game of the WCC tournament since its inception.

Hotopp grabbed a game-high 14 rebounds. Jim Williamson scored 24 points for the Lions, who ended a seven-game losing streak.

St. Mary’s 85, Pepperdine 69

Brad Millard scored 17 points and grabbed eight rebounds as the Gaels (21-7) extended their winning streak to seven games by beating the Waves (6-21).

Bryan Hill had a career-high 39 points and nine rebounds in vain for the Waves, who went more than 11 minutes without a field goal in the first half.

San Francisco 78, Portland 66

Hakeem Ward scored 15 of his career-high 30 points during the first 7 minutes of the second half as the Dons (15-12) beat the Pilots (9-18).

Ward, a 6-foot-6 junior, made 13 of his 16 field-goal attempts and also grabbed 13 rebounds. He scored 22 of his points in the second half.

Ward made a layup and a slam dunk 25 seconds apart to increase USF’s lead to 61-45 with 8 minutes to play.

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: WCC tournament Today’s semifinal schedule for the WCC tournament at Loyola-Marymount: Loyola Marymount vs. St. Mary’s, 5:30 p.m. San Diego vs. San Francisco, 8 p.m.