Braden Huff scored 18 points and Gonzaga officially sewed up its 26th straight NCAA Tournament appearance with a 58-51 victory over No. 19 Saint Mary’s on Tuesday night in the West Coast Conference title game at Las Vegas.
Khalif Battle had 14 points and five steals as the second-seeded Bulldogs (25-8) earned the WCC’s automatic berth to the NCAA tourney. Top-seeded Saint Mary’s (28-5) will be an at-large selection.
Graham Ike added 11 points and seven rebounds and Ryan Nembhard had 10 points, six assists and three steals for Gonzaga, which defeated the Gaels in the title game for the third time in the past four seasons.
Mitchell Saxen had 20 points and seven rebounds for Saint Mary’s. Augustas Marciulionis added 12 points, eight assists and five boards for the Gaels.
The teams were a combined 1-for-31 from 3-point range with Saint Mary’s missing all 16 attempts. Huff had Gonzaga’s lone trey in 15 tries.
Overall, the Bulldogs shot 41.3 percent from the field, while the Gaels made 38.5 percent.
Saint Mary’s outrebounded the Zags 43-28 but committed 18 turnovers. Gonzaga had just four miscues.
The Gaels swept the Bulldogs in the regular season but never once led in this affair.
Saint Mary’s fought back from an early 13-point deficit to pull level 11 seconds into the second half when Saxen slammed home a dunk.
A Battle layup and a Huff three-point play immediately put the Zags back up by five.
Consecutive baskets from Huff and Battle gave Gonzaga a 48-42 lead with 10:17 left in the contest.
Huff’s short runner pushed the lead to 54-47 with 2:05 remaining. Saxen scored on a dunk 21 seconds later before the Bulldogs all but sealed the win with a layup by Nembhard with 51.7 seconds left and a ferocious dunk by Battle with 33.9 seconds to play for a nine-point lead.
Huff scored nine first-half points as the Bulldogs led 33-31 at the break. Saxen scored 14 in the half for Saint Mary’s.
Gonzaga started the game hot and enjoyed an 18-5 lead less than six minutes into the contest. Battle scored six of the final nine points during the run.
The Bulldogs were ahead 30-20 after Nembhard’s basket with four minutes left in the half. The Gaels then erupted with an 11-3 surge to finish the half. Marciulionis sank two technical foul shots with 33.7 seconds left to make it a two-point deficit.
–Field Level Media
