The Gonzaga Bulldogs celebrate their 2015 WCC Tournament Championship as confetti rains down immediately after the game. – Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
Stop me if you have heard this before….Gonzaga (32-2) (17-1 WCC) is the WCC Tournament Champions. The Zags have been to 18 straight WCC Tournament finals, and have collected the hardware 14 times. For the second consecutive year they had to go through the BYU Cougars to claim it.
BYU (25-9) (13-5 WCC) just a bit over week ago left a sour taste in Gonzaga’s mouth by ruining not only senior day for Kevin Pangos, and Gary Bell Jr, but the longest home court winning streak in the nation at 41 games, a 22 game winning streak (since the OT loss to Arizona), 56 game winning streak vs unranked opponents, and a 124 game winning streak holding a lead late (first time since Feb. 12, 2007).
After their semifinal win the Zags said they wanted another piece of BYU. The nation’s best shooting team during the regular season, the Zags hit 53 percent inside Orleans Arena and made 8 of 12 from 3.
(James Snook-USA TODAY Sports)
Kyle Wiltjer had 18 points and 10 rebounds. “We want to play the fast and can score with the best of them,” said Wiltjer, the tournament MVP. “We wanted to just push the pace and did that.”
BYU tried to match them shot for shot with Kyle Collingsworth scoring 29 points, and Tyler Haws 15, but in the end the Cougars just couldn’t keep pace.
“When you get down against Gonzaga they have such a good point guard in Pangos that they know how to control the game, so it’s good to get a lead,” Collinsworth said. “But it’s a game of runs, and we’d make our run but unfortunately weren’t able to hold it and get that lead.”
So Gonzaga all but wraps up a #2 seed, and BYU is left wondering if they did enough to make the field outright, or have to trek to Dayton in the First Four. Going to be a long sleepless nights for the BYU Cougars.