Saint Mary’s is locked in a quay in the NCAA tournament but no. 19 Gaels want to add the West Coast Conference Tournament Championship to their regular season.
Not forgetting that top seeds Saint Mary’s is the defending tournament when it goes into Tuesday’s title competition against second seeds Gonzaga at Las Vegas.
This is the fourth straight season that Gaels (28-4) and Bulldogs (24-8) will meet in the championship. Gonzaga won the first two before Saint Mary’s recorded a victory 69-60 12 months ago.
The two teams meet in the title game for the sixth time in the last seven seasons. This is also the 28th straight campaign that Bulldogs is in the WCC title.
“Some of these lines are just crazy,” said Bulldogs coach Mark F gets late on Monday night. “… doing it 28 straight years is incredible. It’s not as incredible as doing (NCAA) tournament 27 times, but it’s right up there.”
Saint Mary’s swept the season from Zags and has won four of the last five meetings.
Gaels reached the title game with Monday’s Semifinal victory at 74-59 over the ninth-seeded Pepperdine. Gonzaga advanced with a victory 85-76 over third seeds San Francisco.
“It’s always tough against Gonzaga,” said Saint Mary’s forward Luke Barrett before he knew Bulldogs would be the opponent. “It will come down to us.”
Barrett and other seniors Augustas Marciulionis and Mitchell Saxen next week will be the first Saint Mary players to play in four straight NCAA tournaments.
Against Pepperdine, Paulius collected Murauska’s 15 points and 10 returns for his 13th double double of the season when Gaels stretched his winning line to eight matches. Marciulionis, twice WCC player of the year, also received 15 points and added seven returns and five assists for Gaels, who had a dominant 45-22 rebounding advantage.
“We just wore them on the boards,” said Saint Mary’s coach Randy Bennett. “I thought we were playing well until the last six minutes.”
Gonzaga set up 50 points in the second half in his victory 85-76 over San Francisco. Graham Ike had 27 points and 10 returns and Khalif Battle got 21 points.
Battle, a transfer, is not interested in going 0-3 towards Gaels. He said his team must counteract Saint Maria’s attempt to slow down the pace.
“Offensively everyone knows that Zags can score with the best of them,” Battle said. “I’m excited about the matchup. I’m looking forward to this and now it’s time to get the job done.”
Ike did well in both losses to Gaels this season, an average of 21.5 points on 17-of-30 shooting.
His hold of the latest matchup is simplified.
“We got to play a great defense and keep them away from the offensive boards,” Ike said.
Saint Mary’s won the first matchup 62-58 on February 1 in his cozy gym in Moraga, California Mikey Lewis led Gaels with 16 points from the bench.
In the second competition, Saint Mary’s registered a victory 74-67 over Bulldogs in Spokane, Wash., On February 22, Lewis stood again and scored five 3 points and scored 18 points when Gaels climbed WCC’s regular season.
Gonzaga also has no worries about doing the NCAA tour, but few definitely do not want to go winless against Gaels this season.
“They have a great culture and they know who they are,” said few about Bennett and Saint Mary’s. “They play for it and they are very determined and are really good at what they do.
“But we are also really good at what we do.”
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