Gonzaga took care of business on Monday night, and now their attention turns to their final opponent before Selection Sunday next week.
The Bulldogs advance to the championship once again with a 65-56 win over Oregon State in the semifinal round, a result that sends Mark Few’s group back to the conference title game for the 29th consecutive time. Gonzaga has played in the WCC Championship game every single season since 1998. The Broncos have not appeared since 2007.
Once Gonzaga handled its semifinal assignment, attention shifted to the second game of the night between No. 2 seed Saint Mary’s and No. 3 seed Santa Clara. For the Zags, a rematch with the Gaels in the WCC Championship seemed all but inevitable. For the better part of two decades that’s just how things in Las Vegas shake out.
Santa Clara had other plans….
The Broncos knocked off Saint Mary’s 76-71 to earn the second spot in the championship game and continue a season that has steadily pushed Herb Sendek’s squad into the national conversation as a viable NCAA Tournament team. For most of the night the game followed a familiar Saint Mary’s script, a controlled half-court contest that favored the Gaels through roughly the first thirty minutes before Santa Clara opened things up and began to find its offensive rhythm late thanks to some heroics off the bench from true freshman Sash Gavalyugov who absolutely carved the Gaels up in the game’s final 15 minutes.
But the game hinged on the decisive final 30 seconds of action, and it’s a sequence that will haunt Randy Bennett for the rest of his coaching career. Coming out of a timeout and trailing by two, Saint Mary’s elected to defend the final possession rather than foul and send Santa Clara to the free-throw line. Seconds continued to tick away and the gamble looked like it was about to pay off, but the moment also placed the outcome directly in the hands of Santa Clara’s offense.
Late in the shot clock, Santa Clara guard Sash Gavalyugov delivered the knockout punch. He created space and drilled a deep pull-up three that pushed the Santa Clara lead to five with just 12 seconds remaining. It effectively ended the game on the spot.
Bennett chose to live with a potential perimeter shot from a team that had gone 10-for-23 from outside rather than force them to the free throw line where they had gone 4-for-13. The Broncos were in single bonus, and Gavalyugov had not made a free throw all night. Instead, he drilled the biggest shot of the WCC Tournament so far. And that, as they say, was that. The dagger, the March Magic, the underdog finds a way to win.
The result unfortunately closes a chapter for the conference. Gonzaga’s upcoming move to the Pac-12 means the WCC era of the Gonzaga–Saint Mary’s rivalry has effectively reached its end. For years the two programs defined the conference race and routinely collided in Las Vegas with the championship at stake. That possibility disappeared Monday night.
Instead, the final game of Gonzaga’s WCC Tournament run will come against a well deserving Santa Clara squad who’ve bulldozed their way through the WCC in the regular season, beating every opponent at least once… except, that is, Gonzaga, who have beaten the Broncos twice this season.
The game tips Tuesday night at Orleans Arena with the conference championship on the line. Tipoff is scheduled for 6:00 PM PST, coverage provided by ESPN.
Key #1: Contain Sash Gavalyugov… I guess
Santa Clara’s semifinal win ran heavily through Villanova transfer Sash Gavalyugov, who scored 23 points off the bench against while adding six assists in 29 minutes. Gavalyugov consistently found space in the soft spots of the Gaels’ zone and created offense through dribble penetration that led to kick-outs to teammates. The Broncos shot 44% from three on the night and Gavalyugov is the main reason they were able to get clean looks from outside.
Gonzaga will likely assign Braeden Smith or Mario Saint-Supery to him, with both guards needing to keep Gavalyugov out of the paint and off his spots outside. Emmanuel Innocenti often draws Gonzaga’s toughest defensive assignment, but Santa Clara’s depth and versatility may pull him toward other threats such as Elijah Mahi (19 points, seven rebounds) or Allen Graves (10 points, seven rebounds), which places added importance on disciplined guard defense at the point of attack.
Gonzaga looked a step heavy late in the semifinal, and that becomes a real concern on a quick turnaround. The Bulldogs had a week off before arriving in Las Vegas, but the second half against Oregon State looked like a group still searching for its wind. Jalen Warley returned after missing three games with a thigh contusion, which remains a major boost for the rotation, though he appeared to be working his way back into full game rhythm.
Graham Ike logged a punishing 36 minutes against Oregon State and another heavy night seems likely in the championship game. Conditions inside Orleans Arena have also played a role throughout the tournament, with visible fatigue and cramping showing up during the Saint Mary’s–Santa Clara game that followed. Gonzaga will need to regroup quickly and shift its focus toward containing Santa Clara rather than lingering on the emotional buildup that surrounded a potential Saint Mary’s rematch.
Key #3: Anticipate Physicality
The officiating double-standard that appeared against Oregon State was simply gross, no matter how you slice it. For the Zags, nearly every defensive possession near the rim drew a whistle. Clean swipes for a steal? Foul. Vertical contest at the rim? Shooting foul. Sail past a three point shooter without making literally any contact on the shot attempt? Foul. Several possessions ended with Gonzaga defenders standing straight up, hands high, while the whistle sounded anyway.
Meanwhile, Oregon State defenders hammered Gonzaga cutters, grabbed at dudes in mid-air, and repeatedly knocked Tyon Grant-Foster off balance on drives to the rim without consequence. Graham Ike absorbed heavy contact above the shoulders on multiple finishes without drawing a whistle. Mario Saint-Supery even took a shot to the face while corralling a loose ball with no call attached to the play. “El Principito” also turned into a meme against Oregon State after crashing into the opposing cheerleading squad and apologizing with almost excessive sincerity. The yank by Ike is the funniest part of the whole interaction, though.
Levity aside, Gonzaga cannot build a game plan around foul pressure against Santa Clara, regardless of how deeply foul-prone the Broncos have been all season. Instead, the Zags must prepare for a physical game and expect to finish possessions through contact. Execution will decide this game. The Zags need to make sure the whistle doesn’t.
Championship night in Las Vegas carries a different kind of energy. The regular season disappears, the semifinal results fade quickly, and everything narrows down to forty minutes with a trophy and an NCAA Tournament bid sitting on the other side. For the Zags, the outcome of this game could be the difference between a 3-seed or a 4-seed on Selection Sunday. Gonzaga has lived in this environment for years, and the veterans on this roster understand exactly what the moment demands.
That stage also tends to produce unexpected heroes. Santa Clara’s defense has shown a willingness to push wings into isolation situations along the perimeter, which opens the door for Gonzaga’s scorers to create their own offense. If those matchups develop, another trip into the Fogleverse could easily be in play. And after a few games working back from injury, the championship game also offers the perfect setting for a full-strength Jalen Warley performance, the kind that reminds everyone why his return matters so much to Gonzaga’s rotation.
Either way, this one carries the weight of a title. Gonzaga. Santa Clara. Orleans Arena. Forty minutes for the WCC championship. The biggest game of the season. Until the next one.
