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By John Crumpacker
#WCChoops Columnist

LAS VEGAS – In scoring the upset heard ‘round college basketball, Saint Mary’s slowed the pace of the game down from that of a no-speed-limit autobahn to that of a driver looking for a space in a parking lot.

That’s why No. 1 Gonzaga scored 53 fewer points on Tuesday night than it did on Monday night and it’s why Saint Mary’s is the UCU West Coast Conference Tournament champion after it flummoxed the Zags for 40 minutes in a surprising 60-47 victory at the Orleans Arena.

The Gaels (22-11) will go into the NCAA Tournament on an automatic bid while the Zags (30-3) should still be a No. 1 seed, if not the overall No. 1 seed. Although the result was unexpected, it helped the WCC in placing two teams in the big tournament.

“We beat a really good team,’’ Saint Mary’s coach Randy Bennett said. “That program is as well-coached and well-run as any in college basketball. To be able to beat them is hard to do. … To win the tournament, the way we did it, we get a lot of satisfaction out of it. To beat Gonzaga with one of their best teams ever, No. 1 in the country, it’s hard to do.’’

The way it was accomplished was by controlling the tempo on offense and making sure Gonzaga star Rui Hachimura was not the difference-maker. The Gaels put a premium on defending the likely NBA Draft lottery pick with such players as Jordan Hunter, Malik Fitts, Jock Perry and Matthias Tass. Voila! Hachimura was limited to 9 points and 5 rebounds.

“Bring a lot of help. Don’t give him anything easy,’’ Bennett said of the game plan on Hachimura. “Our deal was we don’t let Hachimura have a lot of room. Anytime he had the ball he was going to see a lot of bodies.’’

From the opening tip until the confetti fluttered down from the rafters of the Orleans Arena, Saint Mary’s controlled the pace of play with point guard Jordan Ford the conductor of this slow-moving train. The Gaels led 27-24 at halftime, withstood a couple of mini-runs by the Zags and built a 48-41 advantage on Ford’s 3-point shot with 7:40 left in the game.

“Move the ball and get good shots,’’ Ford said of his marching orders. “My game plan going in was if I had something, take it. If not, I’m going to slow it down. … It was definitely a contributing factor. I did a better job of slowing down the pace and making sure we got good shots.’’

Ford was referring to the nadir of Saint Mary’s season, when it went to Spokane and left a whipped dog. The 94-46 final was the worst defeat of Bennett’s 18 years in Moraga. In the rematch at McKeon Pavilion, the Gaels were much more competitive but still lost the game by 69-55.

“We weren’t talking to our guys about not running,’’ Bennett said. “If you take quick shots on them, you’re going to get pounded because you can’t run with them in transition.’’

Bennett had a tape session with his team in which that 94-46 rock-bottom effort was shown from start to finish, along with the more competitive second game. It was a sobering reminder of what not to do when playing the Zags.

“I thought we kind of quit in that game,’’ the coach said. “We gave into them. They can get up on you 20 and if you let it, it can turn to 40. They got us by 48.’’

Instead, the Gaels performed a 21st century version of Dean Smith’s old four-corners offense by holding onto the ball until the shot clock hit single digits and then take a shot. The best example of this came late in the game when, with the shot clock down to a second or two, guard Tommy Kuhse popped off a jumper that made the score 56-47 with 2:07 left in favor of the upstarts.

Gonzaga did not score again in what was its lowest-scoring game of the season by 22 points. A day earlier in the semifinals, the Zags got out in transition against Pepperdine and posted a 100-74 final score.

“That’s how they play,’’ Gonzaga coach Mark Few said. “They methodically drive it into the paint. They got a couple of easy baskets. It’s hard to speed them up. We had missed opportunities in transition and made some really poor decisions; they were costly. We didn’t get much of anything done. It was our worst offensive game of the season. They deserve credit for that.’’

In this game, the stats sheet really told the story of the game. Gonzaga made only 18 of 48 shots, was 2 of 17 from 3-point range, was outscored by 32-24 in the paint, 14-9 off turnovers and 11-6 on second-chance baskets. Guard Zach Norvell Jr., who can look like Steph Curry some nights, was off form in the championship game, as in 1-for-11 overall and 0-for-6 from behind the arc.

An unsung hero for Saint Mary’s was the 6-foot-10 Hunter. In 30 yeoman minutes, he had 12 points, 15 rebounds, 1 block and 1 steal. Actually, he was sung about. Hunter was named the WCC Tournament’s Most Outstanding Player and earned a place on the All-Tournament team with Ford, Gonzaga’s Brandon Clarke, San Diego’s Isaiah Pineiro and Pepperdine’s Colbey Ross.