Showdown for first in WCC

I just filed a Gonzaga-Saint Mary’s game preview, some items for the S-R Four Corners page and I’ve added some quotes from Randy Bennett, Mark Few and a couple of GU players below. Read on.

First, a short preview on the Four Corners page …

GONZAGA BULLDOGS

RECORD: 19-4, 7-1 WCC

COMING UP: Tonight vs. Saint Mary’s, 8; Saturday vs. San Diego , 7

OUTLOOK: Gonzaga has won five straight over the Gaels and hasn’t lost to Saint Mary’s in Spokane since 1995. Tonight’s winner will have the inside track to the WCC title. Gonzaga has won or shared nine straight conference titles. Both teams have won 11 of 12 since a December loss – GU to Duke and Saint Mary’s to USC. The Bulldogs won the first meeting, 89-82, behind Elias Harris’ 31 points, Matt Bouldin’s 22 points and Steven Gray’s 14 points, 14 rebounds and six assists. The Gaels generally use a seven-man rotation. Samhan (34.3 minutes), Mickey McConnell (37.8) and Matthew Dellavedova (39.0) rarely leave the court in WCC games. San Diego (9-15, 2-7) is tied for last with Santa Clara . The Toreros lost starting guard De’Jon Jackson last week to a season-ending knee injury.

Next, the game preview …

By Jim Meehan

jimm@spokesman.com; (208) 765-7131

The game, of course, is big. Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s collide tonight at the McCarthey Athletic Center to determine who holds the steering wheel in the West Coast Conference race.

And then there’s the game within the game. The last time these two met both shot at least 60 percent from the field in a high-scoring second half as the Bulldogs held off the Gaels 89-82 in Moraga on Jan. 14. Inflicting most of the damage: Gonzaga’s Elias Harris, 31 points and 13 rebounds, and Saint Mary’s Omar Samhan, 31 points and 12 rebounds. The two spent a portion of the contest guarding each other.

“Harris is tough for everyone to deal with,” said Saint Mary’s coach Randy Bennett, whose team is 21-3, 8-1 WCC. “He’s a really good player and he plays big in big games.”

So adjustments can be expected? “He scored 31 of their 89,” Bennett said with a chuckle. “We have to do a better job all the way around.”

Same goes for the 16 ^th -ranked Bulldogs (19-4, 7-1 WCC), who were outscored 49-44 in the second half of the first meeting. Samhan scored 25 points in the closing 20 minutes.

“They were looking for him in the post the whole game, especially in the second half,” said Gonzaga center Rob Sacre, who was often the primary defender on Samhan. “We just have to limit his touches in the paint and just play hard against him. We didn’t double him much. It was kind of difficult, but it’s a great challenge and I’m all for it.”

Doubling down comes with risk. Guards Mickey McConnell (52.9 percent) and Matthew Dellavedova (41) are quality 3-point shooters. Ben Allen, Clint Steindl and Jorden Page make between 38-39 percent of their 3s. Saint Mary’s makes 41.6 percent from distance, fourth best in the country.

“The way they shoot the 3 and as many as they make, that’s why they’re so good (offensively),” Gonzaga coach Mark Few said. “If you double (Samhan), they hit a 3. If you don’t, he can get 30 on you.”

Gonzaga has defended better of late. The Bulldogs held Portland to 49 points, 23 below its average, and Memphis to 58 points, 17 below average. Saint Mary’s is second in the WCC in field-goal percentage defense (42.4) and third in scoring defense (69.6 points).

The Bulldogs outrebounded the Gaels 45-27 last time, which GU turned into an 18-6 edge in second-chance points.

“They exposed us,” Bennett said. “Hopefully we’ve improved since then. You’re not going to beat them if you don’t get stops. I felt like we weren’t making it very tough for them. The few shots they missed, they put them back in.”

Samhan’s best effort in Spokane came in his freshman season – 10 points and eight rebounds. The last two years he’s scored 14 points and grabbed 12 rebounds. The senior center expects to be greeted with chants and posters from the Kennel Club.

“I expect them to be how they always are, getting on me and everything else,” Samhan told the Contra Costa Times. “Every year we go up there, they get to leave with the last laugh. I’d like to leave there one time with the last laugh.”

And a few more quotes/notes:

SMC coach Randy Bennett on the first meeting: “We got outplayed, that’s what sticks in my mind. I thought Gonzaga brought good effort; they just outplayed us. I didn’t think we played bad, we played pretty good. We had trouble defending them. Elias had 31, and the rest of them did their things.”

Bennett on using a seven-man rotation: “I think we have some depth inside. I think six of our 11 are freshmen. We have players there, but we replace young with young. That’s why we only play seven. You’d like it to be nine, but there’s still a few weeks left, too.”

Bennett on what playing with a short bench means: “It affects you defensively. You can’t pressure as much. Most of our teams have preessured more, picked up earlier and guarded you a little tougher. But you can’t ask a guy to play 37-38 minutes and go out and extend the way we normally have. That’s where it affects you and sometimes it’s foul trouble.”

Bennett on Dellavedova and McConnell’s numbers flip-flopping a bit in league (McConnell is scoring more, distributing less 32 assists in nine WCC games; Dellavedova’s scoring has gone down slightly and he has 61 assists in conference): “T hey just play. I think they’re smart enough to know when they’re getting played a certain way to distribute and look to score. It’s adjusting to how people scout us.”

Bennett on importance of GU game: “It’s a n important game. If you’re trying to win this league or trying to make it to the NCAAs, every game is important. We’re going against the top team in our league, that makes it even more of a challenge. This game is important and so is the next one. That’s what I’ll tell the team — we have two game this weekend and both are important.”

—SMC is 8-0 on the road this season with solid wins over Oregon and Utah State. The Gaels have an impressive average of 17.2 assists to 11.5 turnovers. Omar Samhan is the winningest player in school history. He’s been part of 91 wins. Ex-Gaels Diamon Simpson and Ian O’Leary won 87.

—Few on GU’s defense vs. Memphis as compared to Portland: “It was different, we had to totally change. We had to get in the lane and gap Memphis because of their speed and quickness. They’ve been driving the ball, getting a lot of layups. With such a quick turnaround I thought our guys did a great job of taking the scouting report of getting in the lane and taking a lot of charges. We also protected the rim decently against Memphis, much better than we had been.

—Demetri Goodson on GU’s defense: “We concentrated on defense a little more (in practice). That was a big key for us, to come out and play well on the defensive end. And to a man, after that loss in San Francisco, we told each other we never want to feel that way again. We want to come out and play the way we can.”

—Manny Arop on the SMC game: ” It’s huge. We all know that this is a big game, not only a rival game, but it’s for first place and basicallyf or the league championship.”

—Matt Bouldin on maintaining an edge during this three-game span of Portland/Memphis/Saint Mary’s: “As cliche as it is we look at it one game at a time. We try to come out with the same mindset, play harder than the team across from us. The coaches are going a little shorter in practice, trying to keep us fresh, not banging as much.”

—WCC records from 2003-04 season on:

Gonzaga 85-7

Saint Mary’s 67-26

Santa Clara 43-50

San Francisco 42-51

San Diego 37-56

Portland 35-57

Pepperdine 33-59

LMU 28-64