Dave Boling: Flipping season script, Gonzaga makes big plays in crunch time to become WCC champs

LAS VEGAS – Gonzaga coach Mark Few has a name for these kind of games, especially when Gonzaga plays against rival Saint Mary’s.

He calls them “rock fights.”

It’s a perfect analogy. Potentially damaging, exciting at times, but real short on aesthetics.

To call the West Coast Conference Tournament title game – a 58-51 Zag victory — a rock fight was an insult to even an average primitive battle among rival warring tribes.

Both teams shot terribly (combined 1-for-31 from 3-point range). Both were under 40 percent from the field much of the game.

It is the nature of these Gonzaga-Saint Mary’s skirmishes that the collectively ugliness is in the Gaels’ favor.

On this night, though, the Zags were able to scratch out a win by taking better care of their rocks — forcing 18 Gael turnovers while committing only four.

That is a staggering dominance in such a key area when so few baskets are made in a game.

And when time in this primordial struggle was running out, the Zags put together some defensive stops that led to a few absolutely beautiful baskets that sealed the outcome.

At times during the regular season, a few key plays that went uncapitalized led to losses.

Tuesday, they forced the mistakes. They made the big plays. They beat Saint Mary’s the way Saint Mary’s has beaten them in the past.

Few and Saint Mary’s coach Randy Bennett have been going at it for 24 years. Both have said that there is almost nothing they haven’t seen from the other.

But Few threw a wrinkle in this one, starting Braden Huff at power forward rather than Ben Gregg.

Huff has a repertoire of sweet moves on the low block, and a knuckle-ball push shot at the rim that hits softly and almost always seeks out the net.

Huff finished with a team-high 18 points, but most importantly got the Zags off to a quick start, helping them fashion a 13-point lead in the first half.

As each team always has in this rivalry, the trailing team mounts serious challenges. Saint Mary’s definitely did.

But with a little over two minutes left, Huff corralled a huge offensive rebound, against the rugged Gael front line, and put back a short jumper to give the Zags a seven-point lead.

Shortly thereafter, Khalif Battle deflected a ball to start a fastbreak that he finished with a thunder-dunk.

Taking care of the ball. Getting stops. The solution to closing the deal.

Battle pointed to the lessons the Zags learned during a season with sometimes inconsistent results.

“We’ve had some slip away,” Battle said. “We had to go through some hardships in order to win. Coach (Few) taught us that. Every practice, at the end of practice, we go through Zag Time, and it’s just about winning. We’ve been practicing for this moment. We were prepared going into the tournament more than ever. I was just happy we would be hoisting the trophy at the end.”

Few is now assured his Zags are headed to their 26th straight NCAA Tournament, getting the automatic-qualifying berth that comes with the tournament title.

“It was a great, great college basketball game,” Few said. “Two teams competing at the highest level. (It was) incredibly physical. Saint Mary’s brought the best out in us through the years, and that was the case tonight. They made us dig deeper. It was the most physical game we played all year, and I think we made a jump with just being nastier and maybe dictating some things with our defense.”

Saint Mary’s has the best rebounding team in the country (by margin), and the Gaels pulled in 43 to GU’s 28. But it didn’t cost the Zags this time.

“We were definitely tough enough and resilient enough to absorb (the 1-for-15 3-point shooting),” Few said. “We won it with our defense and resiliency and toughness.”

Clearly, the lessons of “Zag Time” every day in practice were not only learned, but executed to perfection in this win.