LAS VEGAS — Tuesday night's West Coast Conference championship game between No. 17 Saint Mary's and No. 1 Gonzaga lived up to the hype. Two NCAA Tournament teams going head-to-head for the third time in less than a month means no surprises between the two sides. The Gaels battled and remained within striking distance but ultimately wound up falling short in an 82-69 final inside the Orleans Arena. The Gaels finish up this portion of their season with a record of 25-7.
 
SAME, THEN DIFFERENT
In the early minutes, it appeared that Saint Mary's was doing the same thing they were doing just a week and a half ago against the Zags. The Gaels came out and scored the first five points of the game and forced a few errant looks from Gonzaga, and then once the game got its flow, Saint Mary's led by three points at 12-9 near the 12-minute media timeout. Then things changed when Gonzaga closed out the half by outscoring SMC 29-16, taking a 38-28 lead into the intermission. While the Gaels could have shot better in the opening half (just 40%), they did hold Gonzaga to 48.3% from the field, and under 50% in each of the last two first halves.
 
SECOND HALF SWAP
The energy early in the second half was all in favor of SMC, as the Gaels came out of the gates firing all cylinders. What was a 10-point game became a six-point game when the Gaels got the first two buckets of the half from Matthias Tass and Logan Johnson, and then eventually a six-point game became a three-point game after a Tommy Kuhse three and then a Logan Johnson layup to make it 48-45 with 11:43 remaining. The game shrunk even further down to a two-point deficit after teams traded layups with 7:28 remaining, with tension building in the arena. However, over the last nine minutes of the game, Gonzaga did not miss a shot, going 9-9 from the floor to close out the game with a 13-point win.
 
AMONG OTHER NUMBERS
Logan Johnson was the Gaels leading scorer on the night, and the best scorer on either team, putting up 21 points on 9-14 from the field, adding three rebounds and two assists…Tommy Kuhse was named to the All-WCC Tournament Team following his 15-point performance in the title match, adding seven rebounds…Matthias Tass (12 points) and Alex Ducas (10 points) gave the Gaels four in double-digits offensively…Saint Mary's out-rebounded Gonzaga 28-27 and scored more in the paint than the Zags (38-34)…the 41 points scored by the Gaels in the second half is their most in nearly a month (44 at home against USD on February 10).
 
POSTGAME PRESSER
"I thought we played pretty well. It was a tight game at the six-minute mark, and then their guards hit some shots. They weren't easy shots but they got separation, but that was the difference. It was a closer game than the difference. But I don't think we played badly, they're good and we didn't defend them well enough. We gave ourselves a chance but we couldn't close it." – head coach, Randy Bennett
 
"I always assess myself as 'I have to be better,' regardless of whether they score a lot or not. But yeah, they hit some tough shots down the stretch, we just have to be better collectively for sure. Plugging gaps, I think that's what we've been good at all year and we kind of let them get separation on that a little bit." – Logan Johnson
 
"We're never going to give up. We're going to go back to the drawing board and see what we can improve on. We emphasize 'gritty not pretty,' but yeah, we'll go back to the drawing board and stick with it. We're excited." – Alex Ducas
 
UP NEXT
Saint Mary's will now wait for Selection Sunday on March 13 to determine their seeding in the NCAA Tournament. The Gaels and Saint Mary's College will be hosting a Selection Sunday Watch Party inside University Credit Union on Sunday, beginning at 2:00 pm. Admission is free, and the Pavilion Plaza will open up at 2:00 pm, with the show beginning at 3:00 pm. The NCAA Tournament begins with the First Round on March 17-18, with the second round taking place on March 19-20.