MBB | Top-5 Moments: Ford in the WCC Tournament (#1)

SMCGaels.com is counting down the top-5 moments from the Saint Mary's 2019-20 men's basketball season. Top-5 Moments is presented by University Credit Union, a proud sponsor of Gael Athletics.

MORAGA, Calif. — Concluding the Top-5 Moments at No. 1 directs us to not one, but three games over a span of four days in Las Vegas. In what ended up being the Gaels' final three contests of the season, senior guard Jordan Ford delivered a performance at the West Coast Conference Tournament that will live on forever in Saint Mary's history.

The Gaels advanced to the quarterfinals of the tournament after earning the 3-seed with an 11-5 record in conference play. Their first opponent would be the 6-seed Pepperdine Waves who had been projected to finish fourth in the WCC during the preseason poll.

The storyline of the game was all about guard play between two of the brightest stars on the west coast in Ford and the Waves' Colbey Ross. The former entered the matchup leading the WCC in points per game while Ross was second and also first in assists per game.

The duo didn't disappoint early on as they scored 30 of the 71 combined points at half. Ford had his team up by nine at the break and the Gaels would continue to hold that advantage for most of the final half. After he scored seven straight, Saint Mary's was up 11 with eight minutes and change left in the contest. Jordan Ford layup vs Pepperdine

Ross brought his team back though and scored the Waves' final eight points, including two free throws in the final 10 seconds, to send the game to overtime. One extra period was not enough to decide a winner however so with the time approaching midnight, the teams headed to a second overtime.

With the score tied up 82-82, Ford put Saint Mary's back ahead with a layup with two minutes to go. Following back-to-back defensive stops, SMC gained control of the ball with less than 60 seconds remaining.

As Gaels' head coach Randy Bennett called for his team to work the clock, Ford held the ball on the perimeter with the shot clock under 10. Saint Mary's ran a last second play to get an open look but solid defense by the Waves prevented any easy buckets. As time dwindled, Ford had his back to the bucket and was just feet from Bennett on the sideline, spun 180 degrees for a 30-foot turnaround fadeaway and drained it, putting Saint Mary's up five and giving him 40 points in the contest.

The Folsom, Calif. native wrapped up the game with 42 points after hitting two free throws on the next possession for a new career-best and helped the Gaels get past the Waves and Ross' 43 points. The 42 points scored by Ford were the second most ever in a single game and just one fewer than Jim Moore's all-time record versus Sacramento State in 1964. Unsurprisingly, Ford played all 50 minutes in the win after coming into the game leading the country in total minutes.

After an off-day on Sunday, Saint Mary's was back in action Monday night against No. 14 BYU. The Cougars were well rested coming into the night after earning a double bye as the No. 2 seed.

The contest was low-scoring and the Gaels found themselves trailing 42-34 with 10 minutes left in the second half. A trio of made free throws by Tommy Kuhse made it a two-possession game and then Ford started to get hot.

The senior made a jumper and then immediately got a steal for a fastbreak layup to cut BYU's lead to one. A technical foul on Cougars' head coach Mark Pope on the next possession put Ford to the line for two shots which he made. A minute later, Ford knocked down another jumper to move Saint Mary's up by four for their largest lead of the game with 6:28 remaining.

BYU didn't back down however and retook the lead in the waning minutes. Great defense down low prevented the Cougars' top scorer, Yoeli Childs, from converting on two different scoring attempts in the final 90 seconds and Saint Mary's earned the ball back with 26 seconds and down one point. Jordan Ford game winner vs BYU WCC Tournament 2020

Jordan Ford game winner vs BYU WCC Tournament 2020

A timeout called by the Gaels with seven seconds in BYU's half would give them one last chance to draw up a play to win the game. On the inbounds, Ford received the ball at half court and started dribbling up the middle. He cut right to drive for a layup but stopped on a dime to throw his defender a step off, pulled up for a mid-range jumper, and sank it with 1.4 left to give his team the lead to a roaring applause from a sold-out Orleans Arena. BYU's hail mary didn't fall in the final second and Saint Mary's headed to the tournament finals for the second straight season on the back of Ford's 18-point performance in the 51-50 game.

In the championship game against No. 2 Gonzaga the following night, Ford did everything in his power to help his team win although the Gaels came up short in the end. In his final collegiate contest, Ford scored 27 points on 7-of-15 shooting, went 11-for-11 at the free throw line, and dished out four assists.

All told, Ford scored 87 points across the three games en route to an All-Tournament Team selection. The iron man appeared in all but six of the 130 possible minutes and had a shooting line of .533/.409/.882.

With his incredible career-ending run, Ford finished second all-time in points scored at Saint Mary's, just four points back of Matthew Dellavedova's 1,933 total. Had the NCAA Tournament been able to be played, Ford and his fellow graduating class of Tanner Krebs and Dan Sheets would've been the second grouping of Gaels in school history to play in three different NCAA Tournaments.

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