It looks like nobody is invincible in this wide-open college basketball season.
St. Mary’s of California was the latest giant killer, ending AP top-ranked Gonzaga’s 21-game winning streak and the Zags’ six-year reign as West Coast Conference tournament champions with a 60-47 victory in the title game of the conference tournament Tuesday night at Las Vegas.
The Gaels (22-11) cut the heart out of the nation’s highest scoring team by slowing down the game to grind out the victory. St. Mary’s held Gonzaga’s leading scorer, 6-8 forward Rui Hachimura, in check and limited the Zags (30-3) to 2 of 17 shooting from beyond the three-point arc to end the Zags’ 18 game WCC tournament winning streak, which dated back to the 2012 title game.
The loss could impact the Zags’ chances of being the overall No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. The win earned the Gaels an automatic bid and gave them their first WCC title in nine years. St. Mary’s, which missed the tournament last year, would have had to wait until Selection Sunday to find out if they would receive an at large bid had they lost.
Jordan Ford had 17 points and Tanner Krebs scored 13 for the Gaels. Forward Brandon Clarke led Gonzaga with 16, but Hachimura was limited to just nine.
Gonzaga had dominated the WCC during the regular season, finishing a perfect 16-0 while winning its conference games by an average of 27 points. They defeated St. Mary’s, 66-55 in Moraga, Calif. and 94-46 in Spokane.
St. Mary’s controlled tempo in the third meeting, holding the Zags to just 24 points at halftime. The Gaels won despite the fact their leading scorer Malik Fitts was limited to less than a minute in the first 20 minutes because of foul trouble. Fitts came back to score eight quick points at the start of the second half and built a 48-41 lead with 7:30 to play that held up the rest of the way.
