With the NCAA BB Regular season games completed the teams are now playing the individual conference tournaments and they are ending fast in order to finish in time for the NCAA Annual March Madness Tournament. So yesterday, Tuesday the 10 of March 2015 we saw the No.7 Gonzaga Bulldogs 32-2, 17-1 WCC playing the BYU Cougars 25-9, 13-5 WCC with the game played at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada and the game tipped off at 9 PM ET and was seen on ESPN TV with 8,585 in attendance.
As the game finished the No. 7 Gonzaga Bulldogs rolled past the BYU Cougars to win the game and their 3rd consecutive WCC Title and their 14th West Coast Conference Title in school history. The No.7 Bulldogs won the game over BYU with the final score being BYU 75 and Gonzaga 91. The scoring the game was all in favor of the Bulldogs as they outscored the Cougars 48-42 in the first half of the game. After half-time and in the 2nd half BYU started this 2nd half with a 6 point deficit, and were seeking their 1st WCC Title. But the cards did not fall their way as the No.7 Bulldogs of Gonzaga outscored the Cougars of BYU by 10 points in this 2nd half with the final score being Gonzaga 91 and BYU 75.
The leading 5 performances in this game for the Cougars of BYU came from guard-Collingsworth-28 points 8 rebounds 5 assists 1 steal, guard-Haws-15 points 4 rebound 4 assist, guard-Halford-13 points 1 rebound, guard-Fischer-6 points 2 rebounds 2 assist, forward and Neilson-4 points and 5 rebounds.
The top 5 performances for the Bulldogs of Gonzaga in the game came from forward-Wiltier-18 points 10 rebounds 1 assist, guard-Pangos-16 points 3 rebounds 5 assists 1 steal, guard-Bell Jr.-15 points 4 rebounds 1 assist 2 steals, forward-Sabonis-15 points 6 rebounds 1 assist 1 block off the bench and center-Karnowski-12 points 4 rebounds 1 assist and 1 steal.
Reviewing the team totals;
Gonzaga with 37 rebounds 15 assists 7 steals and 3 blocks
BYU with 42 rebounds 12 assists 1 steal and 2 blocks
In the scoring statistics the Cougars of BYU made 75 points as they attempted 67 field goals making 27 for 40% completion, and on 3-pointers they made 6 of 15 for 40% completion, then on foul shots they made 15 of 20 for an 75% completion rate. The Cougars committed 27 fouls in the game. On the other side the Bulldogs of Gonzaga attempted 54 field goals making 29 for 54% completion, while on 3-pointers they made 8 of 12 for 67% completion and then on foul shots made 25 of 37 for a 68% completion rate. The Bulldogs committed 18 fouls in the game.
For non-scoring statistics Kaufusi for BYU at 9 rebounds and Wiltjer for Gonzaga had 10 rebounds. On assists Collingsworth for BYU had 5 while Pangos had for Gonzaga also had 5 assists. In steals, Collingsworth had 1 and Dranginis for Gonzaga had 2 steals. Finally on blocks, Kaufusi had 1 and Dranginis for Gonzaga had 2 blocks.
Now that Gonzaga has made it again to the Big Dance as the call the NCAA Tournament, the question is can they make to the Sweet 16 because during the last 5 Big Dances the Bulldogs were eliminated in the 32 round in each of those 5 tournaments. In their favor this year, is that they now have a better winning percentage for this 2014-15 season than in previous years.
If you Bet on College at an Offshore sportbook and are a Cougar of Bulldog fan, then you should know that next for Gonzaga is the NCAA Tournament and next for BYU will be the NCAA Tournament or the NIT.