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Gonzaga Basketball

‘The trends are bad’: Another crunch-time setback for Gonzaga as Zags fall to rival Saint Mary’s 62-58

Gonzaga Bulldogs guard Ryan Nembhard (0) crashes into Saint Mary's Gaels forward Luke Barrett (33) on a drive during the second half of a college basketball game on Saturday, Feb. 1, 2025, at University Credit Union Pavilion in Moraga, Calif. The Saint Mary's Gaels won the game 62-58.  (Tyler Tjomsland/The Spokesman-Review)

MORAGA, Calif. – It lived up to the hype. It usually does when West Coast Conference powers Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s square off on a basketball court.

But it turned into another sour ending for the Bulldogs in a season that’s seen too many of those conclusions in close games.

Gonzaga climbed out of a 14-point first-half deficit, poked its nose in front for 5 minutes in the second half, but Saint Mary’s outplayed the Zags in crunch time to pull out a 62-58 win Saturday in front of a full house of 3,500 at University Credit Union Pavilion.

The Zags dropped to 0-4 in games decided by six points or less, and that doesn’t include a pair of eight-point overtime losses. Like many of those setbacks, the Zags’ offense struggled producing in the latter stages.

“The trends are bad,” Gonzaga coach Mark Few said. “We’re not making shots at the ends of these games, we’re not getting stops, but we did a much better job with that in this game. Again, it comes down usually to one play so you can’t just point to this and say well, ‘We gotta do this.’

“It’s a variety of things, but the numbers aren’t good. We’ve analyzed those in the last 4 minutes and they’re just not good. Actually the last 4 minutes wasn’t bad, it was just finishing it off.”

Gonzaga managed just nine points after Braden Huff’s bucket with 9:57 left put GU on top 49-45. The Zags went 6 minutes and 30 seconds before their next field goal, a Graham Ike basket that cut the Gaels’ lead to 56-55.

Ryan Nembhard’s 3-pointer tied it at 58 with 1:18 remaining, but Harry Wessels, pressed into duty after Mitchell Saxen fouled out, made two free throws with 50 seconds left. Wessels then blocked Ike’s shot, but SMC’s Luke Barrett missed the front end of a one-and-one.

Nembhard came up short on a 3 but the Zags had one last chance with 5.8 seconds left. Ike put up an airball from the corner and Jordan Ross made two free throws to seal SMC’s 10th straight win.

Few said the final play was designed to go to Khalif Battle, but the senior guard got caught up in traffic.

“We were trying to get ‘KB’ coming back out, but he literally got tackled and held,” Few said. “We have to fight that off better or something, but we didn’t quite execute it all the way through.”

Ike, who hit a clutch 3-pointer late to force overtime against Oregon State, was well off target on his last shot.

“Perhaps there might be another option,” said Ike, who led Gonzaga with 24 points and eight boards. “I thought I got a good look off. It is what it is.”

Saint Mary’s (20-3, 10-0 WCC) took a big step toward repeating as WCC regular-season champions. The Gaels have a three-game edge with eight games remaining.

Ike and Nembhard, who finished with 11 points and 12 assists, carried GU for long stretches of the first half and led a second-half comeback that gave the Zags their first lead of the game, 39-38, with 16:13 remaining.

No other Zags reached double figures. Braden Huff was next with seven points and no one else had more than four.

“You need to find some guys that are capable of making shots in a big game like this,” said Few, whose team dropped to 16-7, 7-3. “That’s the biggest thing.”

Saint Mary’s got a big performance off the bench from freshman guard Mikey Lewis, who scored a team-high 16 points and drained four 3-pointers, on a night where reigning West Coast Conference player of the year Augustas Marciulionis battled foul trouble.

And Wessels obviously delivered in the final minute.

“You need guys like that to step up, that aren’t necessarily stars or main guys,” said Marciulionis, who finished with eight points and nine assists. “Mikey was amazing on offense. We really needed his buckets. And Harry at the end at both ends of the floor. He stopped Ike, bothered Ike and hit two big free throws. Without him, we’re probably not getting this done.”

Gonzaga erased an eight-point halftime deficit in a hurry. The Zags scored on six of their first seven possessions of the second half. Ike had seven points, Ben Gregg added four and Nembhard dished out three assists to put GU up 39-38.

The Zags led by as many as four before the lengthy field-goal drought.

“It’s tough,” Few said. “I mean our guys fought like crazy and did a great job, played some really solid basketball in a tough venue to dig yourself back into the game and put yourselves in a position to win it. We just didn’t make enough plays down the stretch, a couple of empty possessions, missed a couple shots, had a foul and then a couple of (SMC) offensive rebounds. We really had them flustered with the zone (defense), but we gave up critical offensive rebounds.”

Saint Mary’s used 3-pointers to break from 6-6 tie. Ross and Marciulionis hit 3s to give SMC a 13-6 lead. The margin was 22-18 when three Gaels’ 3 fueled a 10-0 burst. Lewis connected from distance to start the run.

With the student section counting down a dwindling shot clock “5, 4, 3,” Lewis drained a 3 to beat the buzzer and Paulius Murauskas added another to extend Saint Mary’s lead to 32-18.

From there, the Gaels’ offense dried up. Gonzaga made up some ground, but didn’t take full advantage. The Zags scored the next six points to pull within eight but Luke Barrett hit a 3-pointer – his only shot of the half.

Gonzaga returns home to face Loyola Marymount on Thursday before visiting Pacific in Stockton on Saturday.