Gonzaga caps big weekend with win over rival Saint Mary’s and share of WCC title

As weekends go, Gonzaga had one of its best of the college basketball season.

The 12th-ranked Bulldogs dug out a hard-fought 77-68 win over rival Saint Mary’s on Saturday night, about 12 hours after a huge fan turnout greeted ESPN College GameDay’s return to the McCarthey Athletic Center for the first time in 14 years.

Gonzaga’s win, which avenged a 78-70 road loss to the Gaels on Feb. 4, added more hardware to its trophy case. The Zags earned a share of the West Coast Conference regular-season title for the 22nd time in the past 23 seasons.

They shared this one with the 15th-ranked Gaels, who have one outright title and three shared in that same time frame.

“Big weekend, incredible day,” Zags coach Mark Few said. “I was happy that our performance matched the moment. As I told them after the game, I’m proud of them. I mean this was not looking good several times, whether it was walking off the floor against Purdue or Texas or even down at Saint Mary’s and we were two games back.

“But they hung with it, just put their heads down and got themselves back to where we always like to be, which is winning the championship. Hey, it’s a worthy program and team to share one with this year. Saint Mary’s has had a heck of a year and it was a heck of a game. We could not put them away. It seemed like there were three or four opportunities, but it just shows what a tough champion they are.”

The tiebreaker to determine the top two seeds at the WCC Tournament in Las Vegas is the NCAA NET rankings as of Sunday. On Saturday, Gonzaga was No. 10 and Saint Mary’s was No. 7.

The Zags (25-5, 14-2 WCC) also reached another milestone with its 16th straight 25-win season, the longest in NCAA Division I history.

Senior forward Anton Watson had a big night with 17 points, eight rebounds, four steals, three assists, zero turnovers and one block. Drew Timme had 19 points and six boards and Malachi Smith chipped in 13 points and five rebounds.

“I just think having that mentality to want to get revenge for that loss (in Moraga, California) that we felt we kind of let it slip away,” Smith said. “This one kind of felt personal.”

Gonzaga led by 19 late in the first half and by 18 early in the second half, but the Gaels (25-6, 14-2) battled back to make things interesting down the stretch.

Saint Mary’s, led by senior guard Logan Johnson throughout and freshman guard Aidan Mahaney’s eight points in a 3-minute, 30-second span, trimmed the Zags’ lead to 52-46 with 11:50 remaining. For a few minutes, it felt like a flashback to the first meeting when Mahaney made play after play to erase Gonzaga’s second-half lead and guide the Gaels to an overtime win.

Mahaney’s magic didn’t last this time as the Zags shut him down the rest of the way and several Zags stepped up with timely baskets.

Smith contributed a layup and a big 3-pointer to extend Gonzaga’s lead to 57-48. GU’s advantage reached 13 points, but Johnson, who scored a game-high 27 points, brought SMC within 63-56. Nolan Hickman connected in the lane and Rasir Bolton hit his first field goal with 4:42 left to bump the Zags’ lead to 67-57.

Saint Mary’s had one more run, pulling within 73-67, but the Zags broke the press and found Timme for a dunk with 24.1 seconds left.

“It’s kind of outside noise, but College GameDay is also a big part of it, and they hadn’t been here in I don’t know how long,” said junior wing Julian Strawther, who had a tough night from the field, but hit 7 of 8 free throws to chip in 11 points. “I feel it would all be for nothing if we came out and lost.

“It’s huge winning the WCC after what happened with LMU here at home and everybody was kind of down on us. We had to keep a tight circle, keep it in the locker room and fight.”

Gonzaga had a bigger lead to work with compared to the first meeting, thanks to a strong first half.

Saint Mary’s stumbled in one facet it has been rock-solid nearly all season. The Gaels, tied for 24th nationally at 10.6 turnovers per game, coughed it up eight times in the opening half, including three times against Gonzaga’s three-quarter-court press.

Gonzaga converted those miscues into a 16-1 edge in points off turnovers in the first half.

The Zags ripped off a 17-1 run, sparked by Smith’s six points, to extend their lead to 39-20. The Gaels scored the last six points to cut GU’s halftime lead to 13.

“We played really good offensively for the most part,” Few said, “and the first half, our defense was stellar.”