SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Paul Marigney scored five of his 20 points in the final 1:18 and Saint Mary's rallied in the second half to beat rival Santa Clara 69-64 Sunday night to reach the West Coast Conference championship game.
Marigney also grabbed 10 rebounds as the Gaels avenged two regular-season losses to the Broncos and improved their strong case for the school's first NCAA Tournament bid since 1997, when they lost in the first round to Wake Forest.
Daniel Kickert scored all 16 of his points after halftime, going 10-for-10 from the free throw line and grabbing six rebounds after sitting early with foul trouble.
Marigney made a putback with 1:18 to go, but converted only one of two free throws at 41.6. He hit two more free throws with 14 seconds left to cap a dramatic final few minutes that featured two key misses by Santa Clara star Kyle Bailey.
The Gaels (25-7) won their fifth straight game and sixth in seven -- the lone loss during that stretch came to Santa Clara -- despite shooting 30.2 percent.
They converted 34 of 42 free throws in front of a raucous crowd for the nationally televised game at the Leavey Center, Santa Clara's home arena.
Saint Mary's students rushed the floor after the final buzzer to celebrate.
The Gaels play top-seeded and 12th-ranked Gonzaga on Monday night for an automatic NCAA Tournament berth after the Zags routed San Diego 90-74 in Sunday's early game to reach the final for the eighth straight season.
Saint Mary's lost to Gonzaga 84-71 in last year's WCC Tournament championship game after the Bulldogs eliminated Santa Clara in the semis.
Gonzaga will earn its seventh straight NCAA bid even if it loses Monday. The WCC has sent two teams to the tournament only five times in the last 15 years and has never sent three.
Star players for both Saint Mary's and Santa Clara struggled all night to make shots and there were so many fouls called neither could establish much momentum. There were 59 total fouls called and 65 free throws attempted.
Saint Mary's twice built a 10-point lead in the second half, including 61-51 on Marigney's two free throws at 5:12, but Santa Clara (15-16) scored 10 unanswered points to tie the game on Travis Niesen's putback dunk with 2:38 remaining.
This has evolved into a heated Bay Area rivalry -- and the referees called just about everything in an attempt to keep things under control. Niesen and Kickert are two of the conference's feistiest players. Kickert rolled his left ankle late in the second half, but returned after being taped.
The Gaels made just one of their first 16 3-point attempts, then hit back-to-back 3s to pull within 39-37 with 12:44 left. Kickert hit the first one after a nearly 5-minute scoring drought.
After Ethan Rohde's 3 made it 44-41 Santa Clara, Saint Mary's scored 11 unanswered points and took the lead on Brett Collins' breakaway dunk with 9:51 remaining.
Santa Clara's Doron Perkins ended a 1-for-14 slump on a basket with 5:15 left, but immediately was whistled for a technical foul for a hit to Marigney's back.
With all three Saint Mary's bigmen in first-half foul trouble, seldom-used Reda Rhalimi -- who'd played just 51 minutes all season -- gave the Gaels a big boost with seven points and six rebounds, including two putbacks, in 11 minutes.
