LAS VEGAS — Mike Tyson once famously said everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.
Gonzaga junior forward Ben Gregg delivered the heavy blows Monday night, spoiling San Francisco’s strategy by hitting four 3-pointers in a span of barely four minutes and sparking the No. 2 seed Zags to to an 89-77 victory over USF in the semifinals of the Credit Union 1 West Coast Conference Basketball Championship at Orleans Arena.
As a result, the Zags (25-6) will play on the final night of the WCC Championship for the 27th year in a row, matched Tuesday night against regular-season champion and top seed Saint Mary’s (25-7). Tipoff is 6 p.m.on ESPN.
The two rivals will square off in the title game for the third year in a row, the 11th time in 16 seasons. Gonzaga has won 10 of the past 11 conference tournament crowns.
“Saint Mary’s and Randy (Bennett), this is going to be a totally different game. Much more low-possession game,” head coach Mark Few said. “They’re a great team, he’s an awesome coach and I know this, it’ll be extremely physical.”
The 17th-ranked Zags and No. 21 Gaels split two regular-season games, each winning on the other’s home court. Saint Mary’s already had clinched the regular-season title when they met on March 2 in Moraga, where Gonzaga won 70-57 to prevent the Gaels from completing a 16-0 conference season.
Saint Mary’s senior Alex Ducas said after their semifinal win over Santa Clara he was hoping the Gaels would get another shot at Gonzaga. The Zags are equally eager for the matchup.
“I’m super excited. It’s always fun playing against these guys,” said Gonzaga guard Nolan Hickman, who scored a team-high 20 points against USF. “It’s always going to be a bar fight, as coach likes to say. We’re ready for it.”
USF (23-10), hoping to earn a place in the championship game for the first time since 1998, made some tough decisions in its game planning for Gonzaga. What sprung from that was the decision to give extra defensive attention to All-WCC low-post star Graham Ike, at the possible expense of leaving others open.
“We got our butts kicked by Graham Ike at the Chase Center and we adjusted our game plan to try to negate some of that,” USF coach Chris Gerlufsen said, referring to an 86-68 loss to the ags on Feb. 29, in which Ike scored 26 points on 9-for-12 shooting from the field and 8-for-8 at the free throw line.
The Dons won the battle but lost the war. Ike had four points at halftime at which point USF trailed just 38-37.
But the second half began and Gregg lit up the Dons, scoring 13 points in the first 6 1/2 minutes of the second half — including 4 for 4 from deep — as the Zags extended their lead to 63-47. The 6-foot-10 native of Clackamas, Oregon, never previously hit four 3's in a game.
Few praised the Dons — players and coaches — and said they look like an NCAA Tournament-caliber team. But he questioned the strategy, calling it “reckless” for anyone to leave Gregg open.
Gregg finished with 17 points and 11 rebounds, but Gerlufsen didn’t second-guess his team’s approach.
“You have to be willing to give up something,” he said. “We thought that would give us the best chance to win. But they’re good players and a good team. I loved our plan, I wouldn’t change anything. We just had to be a little bit better to start the second half.”
Gregg, a 35-percent 3-point shooter, missed all four of his field-goal attempts in the first half but did not become discouraged. “Forget what happened in the first half and keep shooting my shot,” he said. “I let it fly and finally made a couple. Good feeling.”
Few said getting big points from Gregg is almost a bonus. “He’s our Mr. Zag. He flies around and the guys feed off him and he just does all those little things,” Few said. “His positive energy is palpable.”
“He always gets us going . . . on the defensive end, wherever,” Hickman said. “Just to get him going with the 3 ball, I love it.”
Hickman and All-WCC point guard Ryan Nembhard delivered a combined performance that drew attention of their coach. In addition to 16 points, Nembard had 12 assists and zero turnovers while Hickman added six assists and no turnovers.
That contributed heavily to the Zags’ total of 23 assists and two turnovers. “I’ve been doing this for 25 years and never had a line like that,” he said.
Senior forward Anton Watson, also given soe freedom by the USF defense, scored 17 points.
USF, which led by as many as eight points in the first half, got 22 points from Malik Thomas and 17 from Marcus Williams.
Gerlufsen began his news conference by saying that losing is “atrocious.” “I’m super-proud of my team, though. The things they’ve done for our program this year, they’re not even cognizant of it yet,” he said. “I’d probably be a lot more emotional if I thought our season was over. I think we’re a post-season team.”