Aidan Mahaney made five 3-pointers and scored 23 points and No. 21 Saint Mary’s recorded a 69-60 victory over No. 17 Gonzaga to win the West Coast Conference tournament title on Tuesday night in Las Vegas.
Mitchell Saxen added 19 points and 15 rebounds for top-seeded Saint Mary’s (26-7), which claimed the WCC’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Augustas Marciulionis registered 13 points and eight assists for the Gaels, who won the conference tournament for the first time since 2019.
Anton Watson had 18 points and seven rebounds for second-seeded Gonzaga (25-7), which led for just 22 seconds while seeing its nine-game winning streak come to an end. The Bulldogs are a shoo-in to receive an at-large berth in the NCAA field.
Ryan Nembhard had 13 points and 11 assists and Graham Ike added 10 points for the Bulldogs, who played in their 27th WCC tournament title contest. Gonzaga has won 20 of those.
This was the 12th time in 16 seasons that the Bulldogs and Gaels had played in the championship game. Gonzaga holds an 8-4 edge in those encounters.
The Gaels were in solid control after Mahaney hit a 15-foot jumper with 2:55 left and Marciulionis added a runner 39 seconds later to give Saint Mary’s a 63-54 lead.
Nembhard hit a jumper with 2:02 remaining but Gonzaga missed its next four shots. Meanwhile, Ducas made four straight free throws as the Gaels took a 67-56 lead with 34.7 seconds remaining.
Saint Mary’s shot 47.1 percent from the field, including 6 of 15 from 3-point range. The Gaels held a 40-22 rebounding advantage.
The Bulldogs made 44.4 percent of their attempts and were just 2 of 11 from behind the arc.
The Gaels opened the second half with an 8-2 run. Mahaney drained a 3-pointer to stretch his team’s lead to 39-29.
Mahaney knocked down another trey 49 seconds later to push the lead to 11, 42-31, with 16:54 left.
The Bulldogs answered with an 11-2 surge and moved within 44-42 on two free throws by Braden Huff with 12:59 remaining.
Saint Mary’s scored the next five points to take a seven-point lead with 10:44 to play.
A short time later, Watson scored six consecutive points as Gonzaga took its first lead of the game, 52-51, with 7:40 remaining.
Saxen made two free throws 22 seconds later to put the Gaels back ahead. Mason Forbes slammed home a dunk with 6:43 remaining and Mahaney buried a 3-pointer to give Saint Mary’s a 58-52 advantage with 4:54 left.
Saxen had 12 points and 10 rebounds as the Gaels held a 31-27 halftime lead.
–Field Level Media
