Preview: Gonzaga takes on San Francisco in WCC semifinal

The top seeded Zags will have to shut down a USF team coming off a big win against BYU in order to get back to the conference championship

In his last outing, Chet Holmgren was 3-for-7 shooting but still swatted four blocks in a loss to Saint Mary's

The West Coast Conference semifinal games are set with Gonzaga men’s basketball (24-3, 31-1) taking on the San Francisco Dons (24-8, 10-6) at 6 p.m. PST at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas. The top seeded Zags will be facing off against the fourth seeded Dons to figure out which program will contend for the conference title and an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament on Tuesday.

This is the first time in over a week that the Zags will be taking the court since losing their final regular season game against the Saint Mary’s Gaels on Feb. 26. While Zags fans are hoping for a rematch with the Gaels in the championship game, both GU and SMC have to look out for their respective opponents in Monday’s semifinal first.

While SMC has the conference’s third ranked Santa Clara Broncos tabbed at 8:30 pm PST, the Zags will be facing a prime USF team first on the night. The Dons are coming off a 12-point victory against the BYU Cougars in Saturday’s quarter final. Winners of five of the team’s last seven games, USF held BYU to 37.9% team field goal shooting and the conference’s third best 3-point percentage shooter Alex Barcello to 1-for-5 shooting from beyond the arc.

In GU’s upset loss to SMC, the Zags shot 36.7% and 5-for-15 from three. The Zags will look to get their scorers going early against the Dons who are the third highest scoring team in the conference.

Especially in GU’s two highest scorers between Drew Timme and Chet Holmgren, the front court duo shot 5-for-17 which equalled their lowest combined shooting effort in a game all season. They dropped a combined 41 points against USF in GU’s last outing against USF on Feb. 24 however, and will look to repeat that performance to help the Zags move on to the championship.

GU boasts Timme and Holmgren, who were the WCC player of the year and the dual defensive player and freshman of the year respectively, but the Dons have the conference’s leading scorer in point guard Jamaree Bouyea. Accompanying Bouyea in the USF backcourt is All-WCC second team guard Khalil Shabazz, who led USF in scoring with 22 points on Saturday.

Shabazz has led the Dons in scoring in the team’s last four games including in their latest outing against the Zags. Him and Bouyea will be up against GU’s host of guards on Monday which should make for a compelling matchup.

Andrew Nembhard was elected to the All-WCC first team and is a Bob Cousy Point Guard of the Year Award finalist. Nembhard has been averaging 17.7 points per game in his last three starts, and in the three games before the Zags’ loss to SMC, was averaging 10 assists. 

Two-guard Rasir Bolton was GU’s most reliable shooter in the team’s last game, scoring a team-high 16 points on 50% shooting.

While the Zags have beaten the Dons by 16 points in both of the teams’ regular season matchups, the Dons are surging coming off a big win against BYU.

The Zags and USF tip off will be broadcast live on ESPN immediately following the Southern Conference championship game between Furman and Chattanooga. The Gaels and Santa Clara will immediately follow that on ESPN as well.