LAS VEGAS — Graham Ike raced off the floor to celebrate after the buzzer sounded and went airborne trying to chest-bump every player on Gonzaga’s bench.
About 10 minutes later, after he was named West Coast Conference Tournament most outstanding player and the Zags collected the hardware by out-scrapping Saint Mary’s 58-51 in Tuesday’s title game at Orleans Arena, the big man parked himself on a portable stage, cradled the trophy and took picture after picture with family, teammates and fans.
“Man, priceless,” Ike said. “Just how I envisioned it. Great group of guys, great way to send off the senior group.”
And a great time to win your first championship since when exactly?
“Forever,” said Ike, including his youth basketball days. “Forever. Me and Ryan (Nembhard) talked about this moment maybe two months ago, just how we wanted to get our first one (in college). And we did it.”
Gonzaga, which never led in a Senior Night loss to Saint Mary’s last month, never trailed in their third showdown this season against the Gaels. That doesn’t mean anything came easy for the second-seeded Zags. They also never blinked, even after a 13-point first-half lead melted away and Saint Mary’s pulled even early in the second half.
Gonzaga fended off several Saint Mary’s rallies and made all the key plays in crunch time — a missing element when the Gaels swept the two regular-season games — to cement a spot in the NCAA Tournament with the WCC’s automatic bid.
The Zags relied on defense — SMC committed a season-high 18 turnovers — and sophomore Braden Huff was huge in just his second career start, scoring a team-high 18 points, including a couple of big baskets in the final 5 minutes.
Gonzaga capitalized with 20 points off turnovers, just over one-third of their point total, against an opponent known for ball security and shutting down opponents’ transition game.
“We tried everything,” Zags coach Mark Few said. “And that’s why they’re so good. We started out great with zone-to-man, then we were basically doubling ball screens. (SMC’s Mitchell) Saxen has really become a lot better as a playmaker. They were hitting him and he made some really nice plays, so we had to flip back.
“Then our guards got in there and started making plays in the gaps, and I thought that really ended up being the difference, especially in the second half.”
Huff kept producing, helping the Zags’ offense, which slowed down considerably after putting up 20 points in the first 6 minutes and 30 seconds, through some rough patches.
“We had to try something,” Few said of starting Huff in place of Ben Gregg. “It hadn’t worked the other two times we played them. I thought we had an advantage with him posting against their starting lineup.”
Huff made 8 of 16 shots, including one 3-pointer — the only made 3 by either team in a combined 31 attempts. He also had four rebounds, two assists, two steals and one block.
“This is indescribable,” Huff said. “We’ve still got more work to do and more games to play, but we’re going to enjoy this.”
Saint Mary’s (28-5) was trying to become the first team to go 3-0 against Gonzaga (29-4) in Few’s 26 seasons as head coach. SMC won both regular-season matchups this season and in 2016 but came up short in the title game both times. The Zags beat the Gaels 85-75 in the 2016 championship game.
“We’re playing our best basketball going into (the NCAA Tournament),” Nembhard said. “Everybody was concerned if we could win close games. We’re starting to figure it out.”
Gonzaga improved to 9-4 against Saint Mary’s in title games at the Orleans Arena. The Zags will find out their seeding — they were in the 8-9 range in most projections going into Tuesday’s game — on Selection Sunday.
Senior wing Khalif Battle added 14 points, and Ike chipped in 11 points. Nembhard had 10 points and six assists. Battle joined Ike on the All-Tournament team, along with SMC’s Saxen and Augustas Marciulionis and Pepperdine’s Moe Odum.
Saxen led the Gaels with 20 points.
“We were atrocious offensively,” Gaels coach Randy Bennett said. “I don’t know the last time we had 18 turnovers either. We (usually) turn it over 9.5. Credit them — Gonzaga is a really good team. They weren’t great offensively. Huff was good, but they didn’t turn it over. They had three, we had 18. (If you score) a point a possession, there you go.”
GU couldn’t have scripted a better start. Ike’s baseline jumper dropped through after softly bouncing on the rim on GU’s first possession.
Huff added a pair of field goals — one a 3-pointer — and Battle scored six rapid-fire points as Gonzaga raced in front 20-7.
The Zags needed just 6 minutes and 30 seconds to score 20 points, but the offense slowed considerably with a bunch of missed 3-pointers and just 13 points the rest of the half and led 33-31.
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