By Jeff Faraudo
#WCChoops columnist | ARCHIVES
 
Saint Mary’s didn’t exactly film a promotional video for Monday’s matchup against top-ranked Gonzaga in the University Credit Union’s West Coast Conference Tournament semifinals. 
 
But the Gaels did what they needed to do to in a clunky 52-47 win over Loyola Marymount at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas on Saturday night, and now we await a very familiar pairing: The underdog Gaels against an undefeated Zags team that is ranked No. 1 in the country.
 
“They’re really good. They’ve been really good a lot of times when we’ve played them,” Saint Mary’s coach Randy Bennett said. “They’re the best offensive team in the country, no question. I’s a formidable challenge. We’ve been in this situation before.”
 
The fourth-seeded Gaels (14-8) have played Gonzaga (24-0) in the WCC tournament championship game four times in the past five years. The Zags won three of those, but Saint Mary’s pulled a stunning upset two years ago, winning 60-47 against a No. 1 Zags team that had won 18 in a row. The Gaels entered that game with 11 defeats and left with an NCAA tournament bid.
 
Bennett said dealing with Gonzaga will be a “totally different” assignment than his team faced Saturday. “It’s always the same. You’ve got to keep them out of transition,” he said. “If you don’t keep them out of transition, get your bags packed.”
 
The Zags beat Saint Mary’s by 14 and 22 points this season and have won all five matchups since the 2019 WCC title game. But guard Logan Johnson, who scored 25 of the Gaels’ 52 points against LMU, is excited for the challenge.
 
“That’s what you live for. That’s what you play for. That’s what you work all these hours in the offseason and in-season to get to these moments,” he said. “It’s time to go.”
 
WINNING UGLY: This is a rare Bennett team that shoots poorly, so the Gaels have adjusted. “We’ve become a really good defensive team. A lot of our games end up like this,” he said. “We have to give ourselves the best chance to win and that’s the best chance to win.”
 
The Gaels shot just 36 percent in the first half but led 24-21. Everyone other than Johnson combined to shoot 8 for 28 on the night. The Gaels missed 13 of their 15 shots from the 3-point arc.
 
The exception was Johnson, who struggled most of his first two seasons in the program but has emerged as their leading scorer. 
 
“Logan has the quietest 25 I’ve ever seen. I would have thought he had like 14,” Bennett said. “He hit some really big shots at the end of the clock. He’s just continued to grow. We don’t run a ton of stuff for him, but he usually finds ways to make buckets.”
 
At the other end, Kyle Bowen took on the assignment of defending senior forward Eli Scott, who had 24 points and 14 rebounds on Friday against San Francisco. He finished with 16 against the Gaels but had just 11 until the final 15 seconds, and he had six turnovers.
 
“Kyle’s just tough. He’s a really good defender,” Bennett said. “Eli Scott is a tough cover. You have to bring help — he’s too big, he’s too strong. Kyle did a really good job.”
 
A MESSY MEETING IN THE PAINT: Not three minutes into the game, Johnson cut through the lane and accidentally clipped legs with LMU’s 7-foot-3 center, Mattias Markusson. 
 
"We just bumped knees and I turned back around and heard the ref go, `What is that all over the floor?’ There was just a large amount of blood,” Johnson recalled.
 
Markusson said he hardly noticed the two made contact. “I don’t even know what to tell you,” he said. “I just felt a little bump, then the referee blew the whistle and pointed out my leg. I looked down and there was blood all over the place.”
 
Markusson went to the sideline and LMU’s medical staff worked on him for perhaps 15 minutes, cleaning up the blood and giving him two or three stitches. Markusson took advantage to consume a couple energy bars. “I had to get my blood sugar back up,” he explained.
 
The senior from Sweden was back on the floor with 6 1/2 minutes left in the half and went on to record 14 points and seven rebounds. He had one more encounter with Johnson when the 6-foot-2 junior decided it was a good idea to try dunking over a player 13 inches taller.
 
“Once we banged knees, after that I had to go at him,” Johnson said with a smile. “He hit me up there and let me know it wasn’t going to be OK.”
 
“I tried to protect the rim, he tried to attack the rim,” Markusson said. “That’s just how it goes.”
 
Johnson didn’t complete the dunk, but got two free throws for his trouble.
 
LIONS VOW TO BE BACK: First-year LMU coach Stan Johnson lamented his team’s 18 turnovers in a low-possession game, but he expressed pride over his team’s performance this season. The Lions (13-9) finished third in the WCC standings, although they were seeded fifth in Vegas, according to the adjusted winning percentage formula the WCC utilized.
 
“Our guys were incredible this year. It’s hard enough when you have a coaching change. But then to deal with COVID-19,” Johnson said. “We did some things nobody thought we would do. And we have a lot to build on moving forward.”
 
STAT OF THE GAME: The Lions had just 58 possessions in a game where Saint Mary’s controlled tempo with its offense, and LMU’s 18 turnovers represented giveaways on 31 percent of those possessions.
 
QUOTE OF THE GAME: “It’s like throwing gold away. It’s such a low-possession game, which means every possession is priceless. That’s where we have to grow. The two games we played against Saint Mary’s — and they’re a terrific team — we had 45 turnovers and we lost by three possessions, total.” — LMU coach Stan Johnson on his team’s turnover issues.