No. 1 Gonzaga visits No. 23 Saint Mary’s

Only No. 23 Saint Mary’s stands in the way of an undefeated West Coast Convention regular year for No. 1 Gonzaga.

The Bulldogs (24-2, 13- WCC) will also be searching for their 18th consecutive general victory when they battle the Gaels (23-6, 11-3) on Saturday night time at Moraga, Calif.

Saint Mary’s is 15- at residence this period and has received 17 straight in their on-campus facility because losing to Gonzaga 73-59 past time.

In fact, beating the Bulldogs has been a main issue for the Gaels. Their 74-58 reduction at Spokane, Wash., before this month was their seventh straight in the collection and 22nd in the previous 26 conferences.

Saint Mary’s did at the very least make Gonzaga sweat. It trailed just 66-58 with 3:10 still left, but the Zags scored the final 8 details.

Saturday’s contest is meaningless for equally groups as far as the future WCC tourney. The Bulldogs have clinched the No. 1 seed and the Gaels wrapped up the No. 2 seed with Thursday’s 60-46 highway victory over San Diego.

“This is a seriously great acquire. We essential to get it,” Saint Mary’s mentor Randy Bennett mentioned afterward. “It was a critical game. Our fellas have been truly dialed in. We will acquire it.”

Bennett insisted that only the Toreros were being on his team’s minds as they posted their third straight victory.

“We were not even pondering about Gonzaga tonight,” he said. “It was all about San Diego. Our fellas were being completely ready to enjoy.”

Logan Johnson scored 14 points to direct the Gaels. He has a WCC-leading 61 steals and averages 11.1 factors for each recreation. Matthias Tass sales opportunities Saint Mary’s in scoring (12.4) and rebounding (6.3) though Tommy Kuhse (11.3) and Alex Ducas (10.4) also rating in double digits.

Kuhse scored 16 points in the very first meeting with Gonzaga on a night in which Drew Timme led the way for the Bulldogs with 25 factors and 8 rebounds.

Timme flirted with a triple-double with 20 details, nine rebounds and eight helps through Thursday’s 89-73 street gain over San Francisco.

Chet Holmgren also experienced a substantial activity with 21 details, 15 rebounds and six blocked photographs as Gonzaga won its 12th straight highway game, the longest active streak in the country.

The 20-point exertion was the sixth of the time for Holmgren, who has gathered 10 or far more rebounds in seven of the earlier eight games. He is averaging 12.6 boards all through the span and has season averages of 14.7 details, 9.8 rebounds and 3.5 blocked shots.

“He makes a large distinction,” Gonzaga mentor Mark Several said of Holmgren. “He is really being familiar with the plan and cleansing up all our miscues and we’re driving fellas down into him. He’s a truly, really clever basketball player.”

Timme qualified prospects the Bulldogs in scoring (18.1) and ranks second in rebounding (6.4).

Gonzaga led by as numerous as 20 points and by no means trailed in the victory over the Dons, who are presently forecasted to make the NCAA Tournament’s 68-crew industry.

“San Francisco is a marvelous staff,” Handful of said afterward. “They just glimpse, feel, play like an NCAA Event group, essentially like one you participate in in the second sport of the weekend.

“For us to appear in in this article and be in a position to rating it and defend like we did, specially in the 2nd 50 %, which is a genuinely fantastic signal for us.”

Gonzaga point guard Andrew Nembhard scored 17 points from the Dons. He is averaging 19 points, 7 helps and five rebounds in excess of the past two online games. Nembhard averages 11.1 points and a staff-greatest 5.7 assists.

–Subject Level Media