Dave Boling: Saint Mary’s reminds Gonzaga wins don’t come easy during WCC championship slugfest

LAS VEGAS – If you could spare a little sriracha sauce for me, it might help the crow go down a little better.

This request from a columnist who recently assured Gonzaga fans that their men’s basketball team was on such a serious upswing that they seemed sure to roll through the West Coast Conference Tournament and surge into the NCAA’s riding high.

Not quite. My bad.

Saint Mary’s made sure of that with a 69-60 win in which the Gaels held the Zags to 25 points below their season average on 44% shooting (2 of 11 with 3-pointers).

And maybe the most telling stat, the Gaels powered to a 39-22 advantage in rebounds, including 12 offensive, which led to a game-deciding 11 second-chance points.

But there are second chances all around, as the 25-7 Zags are surely positioned for an NCAA Tournament berth – their 25th straight.

“We still have everything in front of us,” coach Mark Few said.

True. A number of factors remain in play between now and selection Sunday that will influence GU’s seeding and site location.

To go far, the Zags will need to be more efficient and tougher, on defense and on the boards.

Perhaps the most accurate point Few made after the game was to suggest that the unrelenting physicality of play at times resembled a “sumo wrestling match.”

Since nearly every time these two teams get together it gets it extremely physical, or “chippy,” as they like to say when bodies go flying through the lane, let’s just stop pretending. This is often somewhere between a rivalry and a slightly sanitized gang fight.

Maybe it’s time to just erect a chain-link fence around the court and turn it into a cage match. Let them go at it. It won’t actually be wonderful basketball, but that’s how it gets sometimes as it is. But maybe they’ll get it out of their systems. And it will be great box office.

Most times when play was stopped Tuesday night, and the teams crossed paths on the way to their benches, comments were always exchanged. Anton Watson was often involved. “It’s super physical; it’s that time of the year,” Watson said.

At one point each team had a player receive technical fouls as Alex (Put Up Your) Ducas of the Gaels and Ryan (Knuckles) Nembhard of the Zags became extra-chippy.

Despite trailing by as many as 11 in the second half, the Zags fought back to lead 52-51 with less than 8 minutes left. Few cited their determination and resilience.

In the final few minutes, they came up empty on a few offensive possessions while the Gaels capitalized on timely offensive rebounds.

“They made plays and we came up dry offensively,” Few said.

Simple as that. Saint Mary’s did everything it had to do to win. The Zags did not.

Surely, part of it was having leading scorer Graham Ike on the bench with foul trouble for half the game.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do and we can’t hang our heads with this loss,” Watson said.

As recently as 2019, the Zags lost the tournament title to Saint Mary’s and still advanced to the Elite Eight. That team entered the tournament with 30 wins and a No. 1 seed, however.

Considering the Zags had fallen out of the Top 25 rankings this season and until two weeks ago were considered borderline to even for making the NCAAs, their status is much improved even after this defeat.

Given some corrections, I think they can still get there and have some success.

But I’m not making any predictions.