SPOKANE – Gonzaga was blown out last month in its first game against No. 16 Saint Mary’s, and center Rob Sacre said the Bulldogs did not want that to happen again.
“We played our game, our tempo,” Sacre said Thursday night after Gonzaga beat Saint Mary’s, 73-59, to avenge the earlier loss to the West Coast Conference leader.
Freshman Kevin Pangos scored 27 points for Gonzaga, and Sacre added 12 points and nine rebounds.
“We were hungry to get back at them,” Sacre said of Gonzaga’s 83-62 loss to the Gaels on Jan. 12.
The win kept alive the hopes of Gonzaga (19-4 overall, 9-2 West Coast Conference) to win its 12th straight regular-season conference title – the second-longest streak in NCAA Division I history after UCLA’s 13 in a row.
But the Zags will need somebody to beat Saint Mary’s (22-3, 11-1), which saw its 12-game winning streak snapped. Its last loss was Dec. 22 to No. 6 Baylor.
“I told them before the game, ‘Everybody in the building needs to know who the toughest guys were,’ ” Gonzaga coach Mark Few said. “Our bigs played tough. Our guards played tough.”
Gary Bell Jr., a freshmen guard out of Kentridge High, scored 12 points, and Elias Harris had 10 points and 10 rebounds for Gonzaga, which shot 52 percent while holding Saint Mary’s to 38 percent. The Zags dominated the rebounding 40-26.
Few was impressed with the play of Pangos and Bell, who both played more than 30 minutes.
“They have big wills, big hearts,” Few said.
The game was a back-and-forth battle until the final 13 minutes, when Gonzaga outscored the Gaels 28-14.
Saint Mary’s coach Randy Bennett said the rebound difference was a key.
“They were just more aggressive there,” Bennett said. “Eventually, that paid off big dividends for them.”
Matthew Dellavedova had 20 points for Saint Mary’s.
“For the first 25 minutes, our defense was like good to OK,” Dellavedova said. “But we broke down and they were getting lots of penetration and hitting a lot of open 3s.”
Gonzaga capitalized with 7-of-15 3-point shooting.
Trailing 34-31 at halftime, Saint Mary’s opened the second half with a 9-4 run to take the lead. But consecutive 3-pointers by Pangos and Bell put Gonzaga ahead for good at 44-40.
JOIN THE DISCUSSION | Register here
We welcome comments. Please keep them civil, short and to the point. ALL CAPS, spam, obscene, profane, abusive and off topic comments will be deleted. Repeat offenders will be blocked. Thanks for taking part — and abiding by these simple rules. A thorough explanation of rules of conduct can be found in our Terms of Service. If you have any questions, including why your comment may not be showing immediately after you submit it, be sure to visit the commenting FAQ.