The Gonzaga Bulldogs proved once again that Spokane is one tough place to play. On Thursday night (Feb. 9), the Bulldogs destroyed the Saint Mary's Gaels, evening the season series between the two schools at one-to-one. The 73-59 victory for the Bulldogs was a sweet reward to all the fans that camped out to get good seats for this game and now it gives the team a chance to still get back into the race for a West Coast Conference regular season title this year.
Leading the way in this one for the Bulldogs was Kevin Pangos, who went 5-for-6 from three-point range and finished the game with 27 points. He was 8-for-16 from the field overall and hit on all six of his free throws as well. Three other players finished in double-figures scoring for Gonzaga, led with 12 each by Gary Bell and Robert Sacre. Elias Harris scored 10 points of his own to go with 10 rebounds and a blocked shot. Sacre was also a monster on the boards, grabbing 9 total rebounds, 4 of them coming on the offensive glass.
This game was a much different story than the one down in California and it was clear that the Bulldogs had something to prove against the No. 16 ranked Gaels. Gonzaga would finish the game shooting 52.8 percent from the field and 46.7 from three-point range while holding Saint Mary's to just 38.2 percent from the field and just 23.8 percent from long range. Dominating the Gaels on both ends of the floor easily put this one in the win column for Gonzaga.
Winning against a ranked team is certainly going to help Gonzaga, even if the Bulldogs don't end up catching Saint Mary's in the WCC standings. After this game, Gonzaga sits at 9-2 and Saint Mary's is 11-1 in the conference, so the Gaels would have to get upset in one of their final games to allow a tie for the regular season title. While that would certainly come as a nice surprise, it seems more likely that the Bulldogs are playing for the No. 2 seed in the WCC tournament.
Just six games remain on the regular season schedule for Gonzaga, beginning with Loyola Marymount at 5 p.m. PT on Saturday (Feb. 11).
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*Ryan has been an Eastern Washington resident for the past 15 years, and has followed the Gonzaga Bulldogs very closely through that time.
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