What Gonzaga must do to beat Saint Mary’s in rivalry showdown

The Gonzaga Bulldogs may have locked up a share of the WCC regular season title, but you can bet they are looking to have it all to themselves. A win on Saturday night in Moraga against longtime rival Saint Mary's is all that stands in their way, not that that is a particularly easy task.

Randy Bennett's team is 26-4 overall and 15-2 in league play, looking to win at home on Saturday and finish tied with Gonzaga - thereby securing a first-place finish in the WCC for a fourth straight year.

Gonzaga got the best of Saint Mary's back on Jan. 31, 73-65, thanks to a heroic effort from Graham Ike, who returned after a three-game absence due to ankle soreness and dropped 30 points on 11-20 shooting, including 3-5 from three and 5-5 from the free throw line.

The Zags will need another effort like that from Ike in order to win in Moraga, where the Gaels have taken three of the last four from GU.

Ike's is far from the only strong performance Gonzaga will need on Saturday, and below is a look at three keys to victory for Mark Few's club in their final regular season game as members of the WCC:

1. Win on the offensive glass

Saint Mary's, as they always do, will look to slow the pace and make each possession crucially important. It's imperative that Gonzaga extend possessions wherever possible, and that means securing second-chance opportunities on the offensive glass.

Unfortunately, that's not exactly something the Gaels give up willy-nilly. SMC allows offensive rebounds just 24% of the time, which is the third-lowest rate in the country, according to KenPom. Gonzaga, meanwhile, is a very solid offensive rebounding team at 35.5% (38th), although those numbers have dipped in the absence of Braden Huff, and now with Jalen Warley out it will be an even taller order for the rest of Gonzaga's frontcourt.

Gonzaga Bulldogs forward Graham Ike (15) and Saint Mary's Gaels forward Paulius Murauskas (23). | Photo by Myk Crawford

That means it will be up to Tyon Grant-Foster, Emmanuel Innocenti, and, of course, Ike to give the Zags those extra scoring opportunities, which will be paramount on Saturday night.

2. Stopping Paulius Murauskas

Warley's absence will be felt in many different ways on Saturday, but in particular his ability to lockdown SMC's star player Paulius Murauskas. Warley played 33 minutes against the Gaels back in January, dropping 10 points on 5-7 shooting with seven rebounds, two assists, and a steal.

More importantly, he spent the entire night locked in on Murauskas, holding the 6'9 junior to 15 points on 5-14 shooting - a key reason the Zags pulled off the win.

Gonzaga Bulldogs guard Jalen Warley (8). | Photo by Myk Crawford

No Warley makes Gonzaga's defensive gameplan against Murauskas a lot murkier. Innocenti will likely spend the game defending Joshua Dent, while Ike will handle either Andrew McKeever or Harry Wessels. The Murauskas assignment could fall to Grant-Foster, who has the size to make life difficult for the big man, or Ike could slide over with Ismaila Diagne filling in at the five to deal with SMC's seven footers.

Either way, the path to a win becomes a lot tougher without Warley - who was crucial in this matchup last time out.

3. Shot selection

When these two teams met in Spokane, Gonzaga went 21-41 (51.2%) on twos and 6-17 (35%) from three. Not only are those solid shooting splits against the Gaels, but the ratio of two-point attempts to three-point attempts looks mighty ideal for a Gonzaga squad that has been flat-out bad from the perimeter this season.

Lately, however, teams have been effective at baiting the Zags to shoot threes by packing in the paint and forcing Graham Ike to either get rid of the basketball or settle for outside shots - and for the most part, it has worked.

Gonzaga Bulldogs forward Tyon Grant-Foster (7). | Photo by Myk Crawford

Pacific nearly pulled off an upset over Gonzaga by doing this in Spokane, and Portland did pull off the stunner at the Chiles Center with this strategy.

Gonzaga can't force shots that aren't there - especially against 7'1 Harry Wessels and 7'3 Andrew McKeever - but too often recently we've seen ill-advised threes launched far too early in the shot clock, and rarely with success.

Against a Saint Mary's team whose entire goal is to limit possessions and force bad shots, directly playing into their hand - on the road no less - is a recipe for disaster.

The action is set to tip-off at 7:30 PM PT on Saturday night, and will be broadcast on ESPN.