SPOKANE, Wash. – In Gonzaga's final home game of the regular season, No. 24 Saint Mary's defeated the Bulldogs, 74-67, Saturday.
The Gaels (25-4, 15-1 West Coast Conference) clinched the league title with their fifth straight win. Mitchell Saxen had 16 points and a game-high nine rebounds for SMC. Mikey Lewis added 18 points and made five of his seven three-pointers. Luke Barrett finished with 14 points and eight rebounds.
Saint Mary's outrebounded GU 38-26, and turned 15 offensive rebounds into 21 second chance points. The Gaels shot 45 percent from the field, including 8-of-19 from behind-the-arc. SMC was also 12-of-15 from the free-throw line.
Graham Ike led Gonzaga (21-8, 12-4 WCC) with a game-high 19 points on 7-of-11 shooting from the field.
Nolan Hickman scored 14 points.
Ryan Nembhard had 11 points and eight assists. The Zags finished 48 percent from the field, and outscored the Gaels 38-34 in the paint.
Saint Mary's jumped out to an 11-0, before the Bulldogs closed the gap to 18-15 at the 13:12 mark of the first half. After shooting 51.5 percent from the field in the first 20 minutes, the Gaels led 41-31 at halftime. The Zags tied the game at 46 with 12:50 remaining in regulation. SMC built a five-point lead on two occasions over the six minutes, but a pair of
Graham Ike free-throws cut the score to 58-57 with 6:14 left. The Gaels then went on 10-0 run to seal the road win.
Up next
Gonzaga has two road games in the Bay Area to close the regular season. First at Santa Clara Tuesday at 8 p.m., and then the finale against San Francisco in the Chase Center next Saturday. Santa Clara (19-10, 11-5) made a program record 23 threes in a 109-79 win at Washington State Saturday.