MEN'S WCC: Gonzaga can't weather Gaels' storm

LAS VEGAS – Head Coach Mark Few said the Bulldogs were too casual with Gaels guard Mickey McConnell early, and he and the rest of Saint Mary's made them pay for it.

McConnell hit a 3-pointer and two driving layups to score the game's first seven points, and the Gael's never gave up the lead before halftime.

Scoreless in the team's last meeting in Spokane, McConnell finished with 24 points on 10-17 shooting, 4-7 from beyond the arc, along with six assists and four steals.

"I had a couple of looks that I normally wouldn't get against them, so that was nice. It got me going a little," said McConnell, who took home Tournament MVP honors.

His team, Saint Mary's, finished with an 81-62 win, West Coast Conference Tournament title, a torn net from the Orleans arena and a guaranteed trip to the NCAA Tournament.

The Bulldogs go home awaiting an at-large bid, left with the taste of their worst conference loss since 1992, when they fell 73-52 at Santa Clara.

After the Gaels jumped out to a 7-0 lead, Gonzaga quickly answered with buckets from Steven Gray and Matt Bouldin, and kept the game within seven for the remainder of the first half, cutting the margin to a 30-29 Gaels lead at the break.

Saint Mary's center Omar Samhan, an All-West Coast Conference player averaging 21 points and 11 rebounds, was scoreless at halftime and said he thought a one-point lead in spite of his performance was a sign of good things to come.

"That's when I knew we would blow it open," said Samhan, who finished with nine points, seven rebounds and six blocks. "Because I was pretty sure I'm not going to not score in a whole game, and Matt (Dellavedova) would do well. Only up one, and two of our leading scorers weren't scoring, so I felt good about it."

Samhan's inclination was correct. Demetri Goodson's cutting layup on a pass from Rob Sacre gave Gonzaga its first lead at 32-31 with 18 minutes left, the score went back and forth as Sacre and Samhan battled in the post.

Then, with 12 minutes remaining, Samhan and Sacre exchanged words after Sacre drew a foul in the post. Leaving the court for a timeout, Samhan's antics earned him a technical foul, sparking his team.

"Gonzaga is like a bunch of sharks. If they see blood in the water it's over, you're done. So the minute he told me ‘bring it on,' I couldn't back down at that point," Samhan said. "So I told coach B (Randy Bennett), my bad, I'm sorry, but we had to take the technical tonight. We couldn't back down tonight, and we couldn't play scared.

After that moment, two Samhan free throws and a Ben Allen 3-pointer stretched the lead to 53-47, when Jorden Page picked off a Gonzaga pass and scored while taking a foul from Matt Bouldin.

After Page converted the free throw, Elias Harris converted a 3-point play of his own, but McConnell answered with a driving layup from an Allen pass, and Samhan capitalized on a Gonzaga turnover with a score and foul to give Saint Mary's its first double-digit lead of the game with seven minutes left.

"We knew we were gonna be in for a tough game we knew they were gonna be hungry, and a sense of desperation with the NCAA tournament on the line and down the stretch in the second half they just really out competed us," Few said.

After a McConnell 3-pointer to stretch the lead to 14 with six minutes left, Gonzaga was never able to pull closer than 10, and trailed by as many as 20.

"I thought the time of possession was key," Few said. "They made us defend and we were coming down and attacking on the first side every time, even though that was the message we talked about at the first timeout, and the second timeout, and at halftime."

Gonzaga never quite found its offensive rhythm, as leading scorer Bouldin tallied 14 points but was 2-8 from the field, and Harris, who had a career-high 31 points against Saint Mary's earlier in the year, was just three of 13.

"It hurts. Just coming out and not doing what we set out to do," Bouldin said. "We just kept forcing shots, whether it was one pass, everybody just tried to create on their own. We kind of lost our identity in terms of moving the ball around and moving the defense around. When we force things, we're a lot easier to guard."

Saint Mary's, meanwhile, shot a blistering 10-21 from beyond the 3-point line. Allen, 4-6 from beyond the arc, finished with 20 and nine rebounds.

"A lot of penetration and kick out to three, that's where a lot of their shots were coming from. We were getting caught on screens, just getting beat on the dribble, and putting our back line in a tough spot," Gray said.

Trailing 73-56 with two minutes left, Few pulled his starters, and Gray was forced to watch Saint Mary's hold the lead as the buzzer sounded, watch Gaels fans storm the court over which hundreds of Gonzaga fans chanted "this is our house!" a mere 24 hours earlier, and watch the Gaels climb the ladder, cut down the nets, and feel the security of a guaranteed NCAA bid.

"It sucks," Gray said. "You know it's … I mean it hurts … to see that. To know that we came out and … you look at there's so many other things you could have done, or changed. It's just not a good spot to be in."

A smiling Samhan burst into the press conference asking "why so serious? We're in Vegas! We just won!"

For him, this game was about more than postseason play.

 "More than anything else in my life," Samhan said, when asked how much he wanted to beat Gonzaga. "I did an interview before the game, and I said that this was not only the biggest game of my career, but would define my career at Saint Mary's."