Mark Few reacts to Gonzaga winning WCC tournament championship with win vs. Santa Clara

For a majority of Tuesday night's West Coast Conference tournament championship game, it looked like Santa Clara had solved its Graham Ike problem in time to send Gonzaga out the league's doors empty-handed as the school prepares for its future in the Pac-12.

The Broncos were a step ahead and the more physical-team throughout the first half and a good chunk of the second, forcing the Bulldogs to play catch-up with the reigning conference player of the year largely a non-factor.

But when Ike and the Zags are given an inch, they often take a mile. And in this case, a 5-minute stretch turned into the program's 23rd WCC conference title.

Mario Saint-Supéry drained a couple of big 3-pointers, Tyon Grant-Foster took advantage of his opportunities in transition and Gonzaga (30-3, 16-2 WCC) utilized a 13-4 scoring run late in the second half of Tuesday's title game at Orleans Arena, coming away with a 79-68 victory over Santa Clara (26-8, 15-3 WCC) and an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament.

Here's what Mark Few had to say after the game.

On Gonzaga's identity and going into the NCAA Tournament

'If we can get those stops on defense, secure the rebound, which we had a heck of a time doing tonight, Santa Clara really pounded us on the glass, then we get out and we can run. That's definitely, without a doubt, what we're doing better than anything."

"But again, we've won in a bunch of different ways this year, and I think that's a great sign. And we're rounding into health, or better health right now, so that's a huge sign. Jalen [Warley] is not quite 100% yet, but he's in that direction. B-Huff is up, walking around, jogging around and shooting some now, so that's that's encouraging; we'll see what we get there."

On the halftime message to his team

"We just needed to kind of break through that initial wave of their pressure and kind of stay in attack mode. We were kind of getting back on our heels with their pressure, and then it would kind of get us into the halfcourt, and again, we weren't getting any thrust to the basket or anything. So we talked a lot about that, switched up some schemes to kind of maybe help alleviate that, and also talked about the rebounding quite a bit too and made some adjustments on our defensive covers."

On Graham Ike's performance

"When teams are dedicating two guys and three guys to him, he's not probably going to score a ton of baskets. It's time for somebody else to make plays and we have to find other people. Throughout his career, at least when he's been with us, he's done a great job with that. And this was a really aggressive double team. We needed to get the other guys organized properly, because they were not doing a good job of making themselves available."

"But all the while, he just hung with it. And then we found some different areas to get him touches, which made it a little bit more difficult to double, and and then also he was able to kind of make some quicker moves to alleviate that pressure."

On Santa Clara's NCAA Tournament chances

"They're an NCAA Tournament team. I told Herb [Sendek] that after the game. I think they're a team that can win a game and maybe several. They got size, they got great guard play. They play great defense. They spread you out because they can really shoot the 3, and they're going to be a tough, tough matchup for somebody, especially with that size and athleticism."

On not taking the WCC championship streak for granted

"It gets more and more difficult as we've kind of shifted to NCAA Tournament wins and Final Fours and things like that. I mean, the mational championship is kind of the standard that we're aiming for. But we've always talked about winning and taking care of business along the way. And these are the steps that you have to take to care of business along the way so you can get to the prize at the end, which is the NCAA Tournament."

"These guys have done a good job of keeping their eye on the prize; even though I can't tell you how many times people walk up to me in summer or maybe in September or at the very start of the year, like, 'I can't wait for March Madness.' And you have to explain them like, 'Look, we've got to earn our way to that. Nothing is given.'"

"The fact that we've been able to earn our way through it, the fact that we were able to earn our way through after dealing with some massive injuries this year is really a credit to this group."

On Davis Fogle and Mario Saint-Supéry

"Mario was struggling, to be honest with you, early, and even early in the second half was struggling. But again, that goes back to just kind of the courage and the belief that he has in himself, but also his teammates have in him."

"Same with Davis; I think Davis' first run wasn't quite that good, but then he got back out there and still kept believing, and still kept going."