Gonzaga, Saint Mary’s to meet for WCC title

Gonzaga senior forward Killian Tillie walked off the basketball court inside Orleans Arena on Monday night to a rousing ovation from the packs of Bulldogs supporters who attended the West Coast Conference semifinals.

“Amazing, great run in Vegas,” said Tillie, the tournament’s most valuable player in 2018. “It’s always fun to play here.”

Always fun to win here, too.

Tillie supplied 19 points and 10 rebounds in an 81-77 victory over fifth-seeded San Francisco to propel the top-seeded Bulldogs into the WCC championship game for the 23rd consecutive season.

Gonzaga, ranked No. 2 by the Associated Press, is one victory away from clinching its seventh tournament title in the last eight years — and a No. 1 seed in the upcoming NCAA Tournament. The Bulldogs will play the No. 3 seed, Saint Mary’s, in the championship Tuesday at 6 p.m.

“We’ve had some incredible streaks at Gonzaga,” Bulldogs head coach Mark Few said while briefly mentioning the school’s streak of 21 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances. “The fact that we can come down here and fight our tails off like we did here today. … We’ve had to do that numerous times here knowing we’re playing on after this, I think it shows a lot of grit.”

Gonzaga (30-2) breezed to its eighth consecutive regular-season conference title and earned a triple bye into the tournament semifinals. The Dons beat Loyola Marymount on Friday and Pacific on Saturday to earn their berth opposite the Bulldogs.

And they made the most of it, too.

Charles Minlend scored 19 points to lead four San Francisco players in double figures, and relentlessly attacked the basket to create scoring opportunities. His play helped the Dons (22-12) take multiple leads in the second half, including a 68-67 one with 5:11 to play. But Gonzaga guard Joel Ayayi scored eight of his 14 points in the final 5:11 and Tillie made a pair of free throws with six seconds left to set the stage for his ovation.

The streak continues.

“The Zags fans are always here. A lot of people (come). The atmosphere is just different,” Tillie said. “We’ve got one more game (Tuesday). We’ll focus on that and finish it strong.”

Ryan Woolridge scored 16 for Gonzaga.

■ Saint Mary’s 51, Brigham Young 50 — Jordan Ford did it again.

The Gaels’ guard calmly dribbled to the right elbow in the final seconds of their game against second-seeded BYU and buried the game-winning pull-up jumper with 1.4 seconds left. Saint Mary’s beat Gonzaga in the WCC championship game last year and will look to do the same Tuesday.

“Everybody was telling me to get to the basket, but in my head, I was thinking I kind of want to get to the jumper,” Ford said. “I knew I was going to be able to get a clean look.”

Ford played all 50 minutes Saturday in an 89-82 double-overtime victory over Pepperdine, scoring 42 points including a personal 7-0 run to close the game. The steady senior scored a team-high 18 points against BYU for the Gaels (26-7), who embarked on a 12-0 run midway through the second half to take a lead after trailing by double figures.

Yoeli Childs had 23 points and 10 rebounds for the Cougars (24-8).

“It wasn’t a pretty game, but it turned out good for us,” Saint Mary’s coach Randy Bennett said. “We had the last posesssion, and our guy Ford over here stuck another big shot. … You find out what you’re toughness is like in those games, and ours was good.”

Contact reporter Sam Gordon at sgordon@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BySamGordon on Twitter.