#2 Saint Mary's 69 - #6 San Diego 66

It took a lot, another Dellave-dagger, overtime and a tooth, but the Gaels have made their fifth straight WCC Tournament Championship Game.

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The WCC Tournament is set up to protect the top two seeds by giving them byes to the semifinals. Tonight we saw, in both games, that the byes can be harmful as well. Saint Mary's hadn't played a game for a week and they were rusty.

San Diego took advantage early. The Toreros struck first and after just two ties (2-2 and 4-4) took control of the game. The Toreros would push the lead to 14 points, 20-6 at 11:08, on a Mike Davis layup. Randy Bennett was not pleased and called a timeout.

After the timeout the Gaels appeared to return to form. They went on a 6-0 run to cut the lead to eight before San Diego could score again. By halftime it was just a three point ballgame. 

Saint Mary's had 26 points in the half but had to take 26 shots to get them. San Diego had 29 points but only needed 24 shots to get them. The Toreros, having played two games in as many days, were not rusty as evidenced by their 50% field goal shooting and 57.1% three point shooting.

In the second half of the first semifinal Gonzaga shook off the rust and stormed past Loyola Marymount. Saint Mary's wasn't able to do that. Brad Waldow scored for the Gaels just 17 seconds into the half. The Gaels would then miss nine straight shots.

Jordan Giusti, who played 38 minutes tonight, said of their poor shooting performance but otherwise gritty play, "The one thing we can control is our toughness and our defense and that's what we did tonight." The Toreros kept the lead for most of the second half but the Gaels never let them run away with it. 

Slowly but surely, on the backs of Brad Waldow and Beau Levesque, Saint Mary's clawed back. A Waldow dunk at 6:12 made it a one point game. 30 seconds later Matthew Dellavedova hit two free throws that pushed the Gaels into the lead for the first time all night. The next Gaels' shot was another Dellavedova free throw. This time he missed and the miss was a big deal.

Chris Manresa went up for the rebound on the miss and as he came down his elbow inadvertently went into the mouth of Brad Waldow, knocking one of his teeth clean out. Waldow picked the tooth up off the floor, ran over to the bench to drop it off and then tried to run back onto the court. However, his mouth was bleeding profusely (as a mouth should after a tooth sized hole opens up within it) so he was forced to check out of the game. This was at the 5:19 mark in the second half.

Randy Bennett does not want the tooth so he points Waldow towards the assistants.

Waldow may not have known that he was having a career night with 23 points and 16 rebounds (9 offensive), but he did know how important it was that he be on the floor. He was out of the game for all of 94 seconds. His first action upon returning? Grabbing an offensive rebound, keep in mind he's missing a tooth, and getting fouled. The 51% free throw shooter knocked down both and cut the Toreros' lead to 2. 

With 17 seconds left John Sinis hit two free throws to give the Toreros a three point lead. Out of the timeout Dellavedova would deliver another Dellavedagger. From the corner with 10 seconds left he knocked down a three that tied things up. Johnny Dee missed his three on the other end and into overtime they went.

The Toreros struck first, once again, in overtime but the Gaels struck more often. Stephen Holt, who had an otherwise pedestrian night, stole the ball from Christopher Anderson with 16 seconds left, got fouled and hit a free throw to push the Gaels' lead to three, where it would remain through the final buzzer.

Brad Waldow's career high in points and rebounds and toughness should earn him WCC Tournament MVP regardless of what happens in Monday's game. He was not only the reason his team won this game, but he knew he was the guy that needed to be in the game for them to win. Not even an injury with a time sensitive recovery window could stop him from getting the victory.

Waldow missed the post game press conference because he was taken immediately to the doctor after the game in an attempt to get his tooth put back into place.

Matthew Dellavedova had a brutal shooting night, he was 2-12 from the field and totaled just seven points. On the other hand he did tie his career high in assists with 12.

Actually, the whole team had a brutal shooting night. They shot just 37.7% from the field, just barely above their season low of 37.0% (in a loss to Georgia Tech on November 25th).

Saint Mary's will play in the WCC Tournament Championship game for the fifth straight year. They have made seven of the past ten.