SAN DIEGO -- Blake Stepp scored 20 points and Dan Dickau added 16,
leading Gonzaga to the 105-65 rout of St. Mary's Saturday in a West Coast Conference Tournament first-round game.
Gonzaga (22-6) jumped out to a 16-1 lead three minutes into the game as four of its first six baskets were 3-pointers. The top-seeded Bulldogs shot 62.5 percent (20-of-32) in the first half, and led 58-26 at halftime.
Stepp and Dickau combined to make 12-of-17 field goal attempts, including 9-of-13 from 3-point range. Gonzaga, the conference regular-season champions, shot 59.4 percent overall and hit 11-of-26 3-pointers.
Eighth-seeded St. Mary's (2-27) finished the season by dropping 20 straight games. The Gaels' last win came Dec. 22 against UC-Santa Barbara.
Gonzaga is attempting to win its third straight WCC Tournament title and a return trip to the NCAA Tournament. The Bulldogs have reached the West Regional finals and the Sweet 16 the last two seasons.
Game summary
David Lalazarian scored 15 points off the bench and
Pepperdine used an effective pressure defense in the win over Portland in a first-round WCC Tournament game.
Lalazarian gave Pepperdine a big lift in the first half when the Waves
struggled with their shooting, hitting just 30.8 percent. Lalazarian hit three
3-pointers in a two-minute stretch and scored all of his points as Pepperdine
took a 37-24 halftime lead.
The Waves (21-7) compensated for their poor shooting by forcing 15
first-half turnovers that led to numerous easy baskets.
Pepperdine, the No. 2 seed, took its biggest lead at 55-36 on Craig Lewis'
3-pointer seven minutes into the second half. But Portland rallied behind Ryan
Jones, who scored 13 points over the next eight minutes, as the Pilots cut the
lead to 66-61 with 5:03 to go.
But seventh-seeded Portland (11-17), which finished the season by losing
five of six games, never got closer than five points the rest of the way. The
loss was the Pilots' fifth straight in the first round of the WCC Tournament.
Brian Jones scored a game-high 20 points and Jamie Holmes
had 15 points and 10 rebounds as Santa Clara beat Loyola Marymount in the first round of the West Coast Conference Tournament.
No. 3 seed Santa Clara (19-11), the only team to beat top-seeded Gonzaga in conference play this year, beat the sixth-seeded Lions (9-19) for the seventh straight time.
Jones, a three-time All-WCC pick, had three assists to pull within one of Steve Nash's school career record of 510.
While the Broncos beat the Lions by eight points in both of their regular-season games, they led by double digits most of the way Saturday. Their biggest
lead was 19, twice, the first time at 37-18 following Steve Ross' baseline shot with 3:46 to go before halftime.
The Lions closed within 51-44 on Eurskine Robinson's 3-pointer with 12:43 to play, but Santa Clara scored the next six points and was never threatened.
San Francisco made the wrong kind of history, setting the record for the fewest points in a West Coast Conference Tournament game by losing to San Diego in a first-round game.
The Dons, whose storied past includes two NCAA championships and a 60-game winning streak, shot just 33 percent overall and quickly fell behind by sending the Toreros to the free throw line early.
The previous tournament low was 48 points by Portland against Saint Mary's in the first round in 1989, two years after the WCC started its postseason tourney.
Tyler Field scored 14 points and Nick Greene had 13 for the fourth-seeded Toreros (16-12), who advance to play No. 1 seed Gonzaga in one semifinal game Sunday night.
The Toreros were hardly hot from the field, shooting 41 percent and going 0-for-7 on 3-pointers.
Ali Thomas scored 14 for fifth-seeded San Francisco (12-18), which was outrebounded 46-32.
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