Byron Wesley asserts himself as GU men put whipping on Pepperdine

LAS VEGAS – Less is more is a nice concept, if forever difficult to sell and even harder to fully embrace as a practical matter.

Should it need a poster child for PR purposes, let this be a nomination for Byron Wesley.

But the guess here is you want to hear about the more first, at least as it relates to the Gonzaga Bulldogs, who mostly have been delivering less in all departments. Aesthetics, satisfaction, stompings …

Monday they strayed from that diet, and all was seashells and balloons in Zagtopia.

The Bulldogs reeled off 30 points in less than nine minutes to open the second half and routed stubborn Pepperdine 79-61 in the semifinals of the West Coast Conference men’s basketball tournament – or the Zag Invitational, if you wish. The WCC has now sent the same team to the championship game 18 years running, that team being Gonzaga.

The Zags haven’t always won, but they’re always there – comfort food for their own, hemlock for their rivals.

If there was something to temper the glow a little, it may have been that tonight’s opponent, Brigham Young, found a rhythm every bit as impressive in a romp over Portland. And the Cougars, of course, took it to Gonzaga just over a week ago.

Still, the angst meter would be in the red had the Zags lurched and careened through another exercise in grind.

Plus, there’s this new toy – Byron Wesley.

OK, not new. Just rediscovered. This is how it goes with these Zags. There are so many possibilities in the toybox that some are bound to get buried from time to time, only to resurface. Gary Bell Jr. and his jump shot receded into the sock puppets and sand pails for a while. Kyle Wiltjer went from 45 points to five in a week. Saturday, it was the rediscovery of Przemek Karnowski.

And on this night, Byron Wesley – every bit the X factor that he was envisioned as upon his arrival from USC via the graduate transfer railroad.

He has been that other nights this season, too, but the Zags hadn’t been groping for answers then the way they have been recently.

Here was Wesley’s answer against the Waves: 25 points on 10-of-13 shooting, four steals, three assists. When the Zags went on their tear in the second half, it wasn’t Wesley who started it, but his steal and dunk – after Pepperdine had called timeout and then squandered nearly all the shot clock – was pretty much the signal that, yes, this was still Pepperdine and these were still the Bulldogs.

And his three-point play off another steal was the capper to that 30-10 blitz.

“This was the most fun we’ve had in a game,” Wesley said.

And it seemed to start outside the box – with a pair of early 3-pointers, not his métier, and defense. The Zags opened with the 6-foot-4 senior on the Waves’ muscly Stacy Davis, and while there would be different assignments, the 6-6 scorer would make just 5 of 15 shots.

“That was a matchup we really like,” said coach Mark Few. “You know what it does – it gets Byron going. It really kind of gets him activated and fired up – he takes it personal. I don’t know if it helped him on the offensive end or not, but it certainly looked like it did.”

And when Wesley is going, the Zags are a different team.

Few struggled to find a comparsion – he settled on Alex Hernandez, now an aide on his staff but a spark of instant offense for the teams of the early 2000s – but acknowledged, “We haven’t had maybe a great scorer at that spot over the years.”

At Senior Night a week ago, Wesley wistfully noted that his Gonzaga career was far too short, calling it “the best year of my life.” Never mind that he’s playing seven fewer minutes a game than he did last season at USC, or that his scoring average has dropped from 17.8 to 10.6.

His wins have gone through the roof. The Zags notched No. 31 Monday night – exactly how many the Trojans won in his three years.

“I don’t think he’s ever experienced a team like this,” Few said, “and fans that care. He’s never had any national recognition. Heck, I don’t even know if they have national television. Just the whole culture has lifted him up.”

And this night, he returned the favor.

“It’s good that we’re finding ourselves again,” Wesley said.

No one had a heart fuller than Few, thrilled at the defensive stops and turnovers that his stallions turned into transition art – to say nothing of the 8-of-17 marksmanship against the nation’s best defense against the 3.

“That’s who we are,” he said. “That’s our identity.

That – and playing on championship night, of course.