Preview: Gonzaga looks to avenge Saint Mary's loss in WCC championship

Last time these two teams played, the Gaels held the Zags to their lowest scoring effort since the last time SMC beat them in the 2019 WCC championship

Drew Timme bounced back in the WCC semifinal, dropping 22 points against San Francisco in 25 minutes of action

The table is set for Tuesday night’s West Coast Conference championship game. It’s national No. 1 Gonzaga men’s basketball and No. 17 Saint Mary’s facing off for the third time this season.

Last time out on the court between these two WCC powers, The Gaels left a dent on GU’s previously unscathed conference record dating back two years by pulling off a 67-57 win in Moraga, California. It was the least amount of points Mark Few’s program had scored since the last time SMC bested the Zags in the 2019 WCC championship game.

In their latest matchup, it wasn’t that SMC shot the lights out; in fact, the team shot 2.3 percentage points below its season average. However, the Gaels well made up for it by bringing GU’s shooting all the way down to 36.7%, part of the effect of containing GU’s most pivotal assets on offense.

GU’s front court duo and two leading scorers of Drew Timme and Chet Holmgren combined for 12 points as SMC big man Matthias Tass deterred the GU scorers at every turn and even got Holmgren to foul out late. Meanwhile, the SMC guards of Logan Johnson and Alex Ducas hounded the WCC’s leader in assists Andrew Nembhard, forcing two turnovers from him and holding him to zero assists for the first time this season.

Despite the outcome of that final regular season game, The Zags remained the WCC regular season champions while SMC held steady at second in the conference rankings, meaning both would only have to win one game on opposite sides of the WCC tournament bracket to reach the championship game. Both teams achieved that goal on Monday in eerily similar fashion to set up an anticipated rematch for Tuesday.

Gonzaga beat out the San Francisco Dons 81-71. Timme and Holmgren quickly got back to their usual selves, slamming down dunks off of pick and rolls from Nembhard feeds early.

By halftime, Timme and Holmgren had 12 and 11 points each respectively and Nembhard had six assists while USF struggled to keep up with GU’s high octane offense. The Zags’ backcourt converted USF’s leading scorer Jamaree Bouyea into a nonfactor all game and had two guard Khalil Shabazz in scoring fits in the first half.

In the second half, Shabazz found his footing offensively and put up 20 points, however, as the Dons started to find more collective success both scoring and thwarting the Zags on defense.

Although GU’s lead reached a game-high 23 points at one point early in the second period, the Dons mounted a 21-6 comeback on the back of a full court press and got the lead back down to single digits with two minutes remaining.

Even as GU clearly had trouble holding onto the ball as the Dons’ defense intensified, the Zags were able to put the game out of reach with a couple of clutch free throws in the game’s final seconds to secure their 25th consecutive trip to the WCC championship game.

SMC’s semifinal contest against Santa Clara followed a similar path. 

The Gaels were up by double digits for most of the first and second half, although SCU did manage to close the deficit to five points at halftime after going on a 7-0 run. However, the Broncos couldn’t stop SMC guard Tommy Kuhse, who was automatic from range when able to create floor space through off ball movement or screens. Kuhse put up a game-high 27 points on 11-for-18 shooting and was a perfect 3-for-3 from deep.

Meanwhile, SCU’s premiere scorer in guard Jalen Williams had trouble getting going, shooting 35.2% on the night. It was the Broncos next two men up in Josip Vrankic and Keshawn Justice who dropped 21 points each and led the Broncos back on 21-8 run at the end of the game to bring it back within one.

Williams couldn’t hit two of his shots as time was expiring however, and the Gaels held on to win 72-75.

Tuesday’s game will come down to which of these two teams has the fortitude to pull away down the stretch. GU boasts the highest scoring offense in the nation while SMC has the ninth best adjusted offense in college basketball according to KenPom. The first time these two teams met, GU was able to push the pace past what the Gaels could handle, while in the second meeting, SMC picked apart GU’s strategy to render the Zags' attack useless.

We’ll see what happens in the third meeting Tuesday night. The WCC championship will be broadcast live on ESPN from the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas with tip-off at 6 p.m. PST.