Key Video games Will Pay Dividends Later For West Coast Conference Basketball

West Coast Conference basketball groups celebrated Thanksgiving week by staking their flags in all places from Florida to Texas to Las Vegas to Palm Springs to Hawaii, to not point out the Bahamas and Virgin Islands. Travel and hoops have been added to the traditions of turkey and stuffing.
 
For the Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s males’s groups — who sometimes carry the league’s banner — the possibility to play in high-level tournaments towards groups anticipated to generate sturdy pc rankings pays dividends when the NCAA Tournament alternatives and seedings are decided.
 
The Zags competed on the Players Era Festival in Las Vegas, the place they opened with a powerful 95-85 win over No. 8 Alabama, their second victory this season over a Top-25 opponent. A day later, they ran their report to 7-0 and superior to the championship recreation by crushing Maryland 100-61.
 
The Gaels trekked to Nassau, Bahamas for the Battle 4 Atlantis the place they beat Wichita State 70-65 and beforehand undefeated Virginia Tech 77-66 to enhance to 8-0 — their finest begin because the 2013-14 marketing campaign — and attain the Friday title recreation.
 
Both groups fell wanting bringing dwelling championship {hardware}, with Gonzaga (7-1) falling 101-61 to No. 7 Michigan (6-0), which had steamrolled San Diego State and No. 21 Auburn by a mixed 70 factors in its first two video games. The Gaels (8-1) had no higher luck, overwhelmed 96-71 by Twenty fourth-ranked Vanderbilt (8-0), which avenged a loss to Saint Mary’s in final season’s NCAA Tournament opener.
 
While each groups anticipate to play higher, there are a pair methods this expertise ought to profit them.
 
“It’ll help with the rankings — the Ken Pom, the NET — when they do those things. It’ll help because there were probably two Quad 1 games,” Saint Mary’s head coach Randy Bennett mentioned, referring to the scores worth assigned to video games towards higher-ranked opponents. “Also, it’s still early in the season and you need to see good teams so you do get exposed. Hopefully, we’re better than we were tonight about handling things.”
 
Mark Few and Bennett, who’ve received a mixed 1,319 video games as two of the nation’s most profitable coaches over the previous quarter-century, are positive to get their squads pointed the suitable course once more. But each have been unequivocal of their assessments of the title-game performances.
 
Forward Paulius Murauskas was a vibrant spot for Saint Mary’s, scoring 24 factors towards the Commodores, and averaging 21.0 over three days to maneuver into the convention scoring lead at 19.2. Gonzaga ahead Braden Huff averaged 17.6 factors at Vegas, taking pictures 64 % from the sphere.
 
WSU’S GLASS ACES FRESHMAN EXAM: Washington State ventured to the Maui Invitational, the place freshman guard Ace Glass II wrote some convention historical past.
 
West Coast Conference gamers have scored at the least 40 factors in a recreation greater than 80 instances. Glass, who put up a fair 40 towards Arizona State final Tuesday, turned the primary to do it as a freshman. 
 
Glass shot 9-for-14 from the sphere, 6 of 9 from 3-point vary and 16 of 18 from the free throw line within the Cougars’ 100-94 loss within the match semifinals. He eclipsed his earlier excessive of 26 factors, achieved the day earlier than towards match host Chaminade.
 
“Obviously, Ace had a hell of a night,” Cougars head coach David Riley mentioned. “We had an incredible performance from a freshman. I haven’t seen someone have the trajectory that is as good as his. He’s done a great job.”
 
Glass credited the gamers round him for his huge evening, creating house for him or setting screens that popped him free. “Thanks to my teammates, for sure,” he mentioned. “Just getting me open shots and letting the rest take care of itself.”
 
According to WSU, Glass turned the primary freshman nationally to attain 40 factors in a recreation this season.
 
He turned the eighth WSU participant to succeed in the 40-point plateau and the primary to take action since Noah Williams 5 years in the past. He additionally got here inside three factors of matching the Maui single-game report of 43, set by Gonzaga’s Adam Morrison in 2005. 
 
Glass, who got here to WSU from Rialto in California’s San Bernardino County, averaged 27 factors in three Maui outings. He leads the Cougars with a 17.6 season common.
 
LAST WEEK’S BIG THING: Playing already their fourth and fifth video games away from dwelling, the Gonzaga ladies squared their report at 4-4 after a 65-61 win over Marquette of the Big East Conference within the comfort recreation of the Coconut Hoops occasion on Sunday morning at Estero, Florida. Lauren Whittaker, the redshirt freshman ahead from New Zealand, had her second double-double with 23 factors and 13 rebounds and sophomore guard Allie Turner scored 17 factors. Two days earlier, in a 76-72 loss to unbeaten Indiana, Whittaker had 27 factors and Turner posted 21 for the Zags, who even have performed video games in North Dakota, South Dakota and Ohio and can trek to Missouri subsequent month.
 
THIS WEEK’S BIG THING, PART 1: The Oregon State ladies (5-3) go to neighbor and long-time rival Oregon (8-0) for a 6 p.m. matchup on Wednesday.  This will probably be their 107th assembly, however the first because the 2023-24 season, when OSU swept each matchups within the Pac-12.
 
THIS WEEK’S BIG THING, PART 2: The Gonzaga males (7-1) soar proper again into the deep finish of the pool on Friday once they go to No. 19 Kentucky at storied Rupp Arena. Tipoff is 4 p.m. on ESPN2. The Wildcats (5-2) play a big tuneup earlier than the Zags as host to No. 16 North Carolina (6-1) on Tuesday.
 
TIGERS FINDING THEIR WAY: A 12 months in the past, in coach Dave Smart’s debut season, Pacific managed only one victory over a Division I opponent in its first seven video games. Things look like altering for the great.
 
The Tigers haven’t performed a assassin’s row schedule however they’re 6-2 and have received three in a row, two of them away from dwelling. They’ll be examined this week with street video games vs. Air Force on Wednesday and Cal on Saturday.
 
Elias Ralph, the senior ahead from Okotoks, Canada, continues to paved the way. He is averaging 16.6 factors and 6.8 rebounds and produced 53 factors in wins over Stony Brook, Jacksonville and Sacramento State.
 
LIONS’ FAST START: Even after a 71-68 dwelling defeat to Stony Brook on Friday, the LMU males are 7-2 — their finest begin since opening 8-0 in 2018-19. The Lions, who current a balanced assault with 4 gamers averaging double digits, proceed to be led by senior guard MJ Amey Jr., who has scored double digits eight instances in 9 video games and is averaging 15.4 factors, all of it off the bench.
 
LMU stays at dwelling Tuesday evening to face Saint Louis (6-1), which handed Santa Clara its solely defeat of the season.
 
PILOTS’ FRESHMAN 1-2 PUNCH: The Portland males (5-3) have been fueled by a pair of worldwide freshmen. Guard Joel Foxwell, from   Melbourne, Australia, averages a team-best 15.6 factors, 5.4 rebounds and 6.1 assists, most by a freshman nationally. Forward Timo George, a 6-foot-8, 245-pounder from Amsterdam, Netherlands, offers 13.4 factors and 5.4 rebounds. 
 
George, who shoots 75-percent from the sphere, together with 82 % on makes an attempt contained in the 3-point arc, helped the Pilots to their finest taking pictures efficiency in additional than 40 years of their 93-73 win over Long Beach State final Wednesday.
 
George shot 8-for-10 and Foxwell made 7 of 10 photographs because the Pilots transformed 70 % (35 for 50), their highest since making 72.2 % vs. Cal State Fullerton on Dec. 21, 1982.
 
ETHRIDGE POSTS 200TH CAREER WIN: Washington State ladies’s coach Kamie Ethridge celebrated a milestone final Friday evening when the Cougars defeated Miami-Ohio 71-67 for her two hundredth profession victory.
 
Eleonora Villa scored 25 factors and Charlotte Abraham added 18 within the win on the Paradise Jam within the Virgin Islands. Ethridge has 117 of these victories at Washington State, putting her fourth on this system’s all-time record. 
 
The Cougars bumped into nationwide powerhouse and fifth-ranked LSU two days later, sustaining a 112-35 defeat.