‘He’s becoming a winner.’ Khalif Battle helps deliver Gonzaga WCC title to clinch guard’s first NCAA trip
LAS VEGAS – Nolan Hickman stood next to the ladder, offering pointers as teammate Khalif Battle clipped down his portion of the net Tuesday night at Orleans Arena.
“I was just telling him – he’d never done it before, he didn’t quite know his way around the nets,” Hickman said. “So I was just telling him, you’ve got to cut low, cut high and put that joint around the ear. That’s it.”
Battle, on his fourth school and playing in his sixth college basketball season, had come up short in five previous tries at the conference tournament. Make that, five tries at three conference tournaments: one in the Big East, three in the AAC and one in the SEC.
The veteran guard capitalized on his only opportunity in the West Coast Conference, delivering back-to-back double-digit performances in Las Vegas to help the Zags capture a championship with a 58-51 win over Saint Mary’s on Tuesday night.
“We’ve been confident the whole year,” Battle said. “We’ve had some slip away – we’ve had to go through some hardships in order to win and coach taught us that. Every practice at the end of practice, we go through ‘Zag Time.’ It’s just about winning.
“We’ve been practicing for this moment, I think we were prepared more than ever going into the tournament so I’m just happy we were able to hoist the trophy at the end of that.”
Battle came through with a 21-point, four-rebound performance in Gonzaga’s 85-76 semifinal win over San Francisco on Monday and secured all-tournament honors a day later, contributing 14 points, five steals, three assists and two rebounds to help the Zags avenge two regular-season losses to Saint Mary’s and capture their first WCC title since 2023.
The senior had a hand in the game-clinching play, stealing the ball from Gaels guard Luke Barrett with 39 seconds remaining before dishing off to Nolan Hickman. A streaking Battle was one of the first players to the other end of the floor, catching a high lob from Hickman before punctuating the play with an alley oop.
“I was just thinking the game over,” Hickman said. “After he stole the ball, he started our break, he threw it to me and I knew I was going to go right back to him, seal the deal and it was rocking. The way we did it, it was dope. It was definitely a way to end the night.”
Battle’s streaky season concluded with four double-digit scoring efforts. The guard delivered 21 points in a 95-76 win at Santa Clara and followed that up with 14 more in the regular-season finale against San Francisco.
The guard celebrated on the floor with family members, including older brother Tyus, a former All-ACC standout at Syracuse who made it to the Sweet 16 in the 2018 NCAA Tournament.
“This is why he came here,” said Tyus, who noted it was special to watch Khalif celebrate a conference title – something he wasn’t able to achieve playing in a competitive ACC.
Battle won 22 games during his first and only season at Butler but didn’t make the NCAA Tournament. The guard combined to go 38-39 over his next three seasons at Temple before finishing 19-12 at Arkansas last season, failing to make the Big Dance at both schools.
With Battle as their second-leading scorer (13.1 ppg), the Zags finish the regular season with a 25-8 record and will send the guard to his first NCAA Tournament roughly a week from now.
“I think coach Few said it after a game, he just said he’s becoming a winner,” senior forward Ben Gregg said. “… You can tell the change from when he first got here and where he is now, mentally and how he interacts with us. It’s night and day difference.”