Spokane, WA (Sports Network) - The No. 3 Gonzaga Bulldogs look to clinch the
West Coast Conference regular season title on Saturday as they host the San
Diego Toreros at the McCarthey Athletic Center.
This will be a rematch of a thriller that took place at the Jenny Craig
Pavilion on Feb. 2. The Bulldogs narrowly avoided an upset against a fired up
Toreros squad and escaped San Diego with a 65-63 victory. Johnny Dee paced USD
with 21 points and Christopher Anderson tallied nine points, 11 assists and
seven rebounds in the losing effort. Elias Harris posted 18 points, eight
rebounds and also made the game-winning block in the closing seconds for
Gonzaga.
USD followed its close loss to Gonzaga with a pair of victories over Loyola
Marymount and BYU, but soon followed a three-game slide consisting of setbacks
to Saint Mary's (74-64), Santa Clara (61-52) and most recently, Portland
(70-67). The Toreros hot on 48.1 percent of their field goal tries and limited
the Pilots to 1-of-7 shooting from beyond the arc, but they were unable to
overcome a poor 12-of-20 showing at the charity stripe.
Dee led the Toreros (13-15, 6-7) against Portland with 13 points, 11 of them
coming in the second stanza. Chris Manresa and Ken Rancifer scored 12 points
each as the team suffered its seventh loss of its last nine after beginning
the WCC season 4-0. Dee is pacing the team with 15.0 ppg and Rancifer adds
10.1 ppg. The 5-foot-7 Anderson is a very versatile point guard with averages
of 9.1 points, 5.5 assists and 2.3 steals per tilt. As a unit, USD third to
last in the WCC offensively with 65.0 ppg. However, it is also the third best
team on the other end of the court with only 65.4 points allowed per outing.
The Torero's lead the conference in 3-point field goal percentage defense
(0.306) which is going to be helpful against the very accurate Zags.
Mark Few's Bulldogs still only have two losses on their resume with two games
left after Saturday. Gonzaga is coming off an 85-42 rout of Santa Clara that
marked its ninth win in a row. Gonzaga's only losses this season are to
Illinois and at Butler. The Bulldogs' homecourt advantage is one of the most
powerful in the nation, as they are 118-8 in the McCarthey Athletic Center
since it opened in 2004. One more win by the Zags or one more loss by Saint
Mary's will crown the Bulldogs the WCC regular season champion. The very
talented forward tandem of Kelly Olynyk (17.9 ppg, 6.9 rpg, 1.2 bpg) and
Harris (14.6 ppg, 6.9 rpg) has powered the team to a perfect 13-0 conference
record.
Gonzaga displayed both finesse and power in its lopsided win over the Broncos.
It held a 41-20 edge in the rebounding battle, shot 56.9 percent for the game
and made 7 of 17 3-pointers. Harris and Olynyk combined for 31 points and 16
boards in the contest. Sophomore point guard Kevin Pangos does a great job of
spreading the floor with his pinpoint accuracy from 3-point range (0.443) that
is yielding 11.8 ppg. The Bulldogs are one of the few teams in the nation
leading their conference in both scoring offense (78.5) and scoring defense
(60.5).
The Sports Network