Saint Mary’s takes shot at interrupting Gonzaga’s unbeaten West Coast Conference run

The year was 2008. San Diego upset Gonzaga at the Jenny Craig Pavilion to win the West Coast Conference Tournament. That was the last time the tourney champion wasn’t Gonzaga or Saint Mary’s.

As far as regular-season champions, one has to rewind back to 2002 when Pepperdine shared first with Gonzaga. Every year since, it’s been Gonzaga’s name (16 solo, two shared with the Gaels) and/or Saint Mary’s (one solo, two shared with the Zags) engraved on the trophy.

So welcome back to the good old days, sort of. The Gaels, after a rare down year last season and a rare finish outside the top two in 2020, are back in their familiar role as Gonzaga’s closest pursuer entering Saturday’s night clash at the McCarthey Athletic Center.

No. 22 Saint Mary’s (20-5, 8-2 WCC) is perhaps the only team that can inject some drama at the top of the conference standings, but it would require springing a big upset over No. 2 Gonzaga (20-2, 9-0).

The Zags pummeled third-place Santa Clara by 32 points on the road, fourth-place San Francisco by 16, the closest of their nine conference victories, and fifth-place BYU by 26 and 33. They’ve won 30 straight WCC games, 27 in a row by double figures. They’ve won 65 consecutive home games, the longest active streak in the nation.

Now the Gaels take the first of their two swings at the Zags, who have won all six of the previous meetings when both teams were ranked. Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s close the regular season Feb. 26 in Moraga, California.

“They’ve played us so many years, they know what we’re doing and we know what they’re doing,” GU senior guard Andrew Nembhard said. “So it’s one of those games where kind of everything matters, but I think it’s more about us, what we do and our approach.”

GU has won the past six in the series. The Gaels at times have cracked the code against the Zags, including an upset win for the 2019 WCC Tournament title and a 74-71 win at the Kennel in 2018.

Saint Mary’s coach Randy Bennett is 11-43 – three of those wins in WCC Tournament championship games – in his 21 seasons against the Zags. In addition to a trio of solo/shared regular-season titles, his Gaels finished second (or tied for second) behind Gonzaga 11 times from 2004-2019.

The Gaels yield just 59.1 points, ninth nationally. They’ve made a major offensive jump to 70.6 points, 46.5% field-goal shooting, including 35.6% on 3-pointers, compared to 64.3 points, 42.2% from the field and 29.4% from deep while finishing 14-10 last season.

“They’re going to stay between you and the basket and make you take tough shots. They’re extremely consistent with how they play over the years,” Zags coach Mark Few said. “They’re going to run a bunch of balls screens. (Tommy) Kuhse is going to use as many dribbles as you’ve ever seen a guard use in a ball screen.

“He’s very patient, he’s kind of even delivering a lot more this year in his fifth year. They always have that really good post player (Matthias Tass) down there in the block. The difference between this year and last year is those guys are really shooting it now. That makes them inside and outside dangerous.”

Pace of play – Saint Mary’s wants to keep the score and possessions down against a Gonzaga offense that tops the nation in scoring – is always one of the rivalry’s subplots.

“No matter what rank they are, they’re always a hard opponent to play,” junior forward Drew Timme said. “They’re a tough group of guys and they’re coached really well. They don’t beat themselves, you have to beat them.

“Especially for guys that haven’t played them before, it’s really trying to get that message across of how disciplined you have to be, how focused you have to be and how hard you have to play.”

Gonzaga remains No. 1 in the NET rankings and figures to return to No. 1 in the AP poll with a win Saturday. Saint Mary’s is No. 21 in the NET, but probably needs a victory over Gonzaga to stay in the AP Top 25 after falling to Santa Clara on Tuesday.

The Gaels rebounded with an 86-57 rout over San Diego on Thursday. They’re projected as a No. 9 seed, according to ESPN’s Joe Lunardi’s latest bracket. San Francisco is an 11 seed and BYU is the last team in the field as a 12 seed.