It’s round two of one of the marquee matchups in WCC Basketball. This is the last regular-season game for both schools, and there’s a title at stake for Gonzaga.
TV schedule: Saturday, February 24, 8:00pm ET, ESPN2
Arena: Marriott Center in Provo, Utah
Announcers: Eric Rothman and Caron Butler
An outright title is on the line for the Zags.
No. 6 Gonzaga (26-4, 16-1 WCC) enters their final regular-season game of the year in sole possession of first place. If they can walk out of a hostile Marriott Center with a win, they’ll enter postseason play as the outright WCC Champions.
BYU (22-8, 11-6 WCC), on the other hand, could use a win against the Bulldogs to carry momentum into next week’s tournament in Las Vegas. They’ve clinched the third seed in the tournament, so they’ll wait for the final slate of games to see who they’ll match up with next Saturday.
These two teams met for the first time this season on February 3rd up in Spokane. The Zags held on to beat the Cougars 68-60, snapping BYU’s three-game winning streak against Gonzaga in The Kennel.
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On the flip side, Gonzaga has won three straight against BYU in Provo, so the Cougars will look to stop that home skid in this second meeting of the season.
The Bulldogs are riding a 10-game winning streak, surviving a scare on Thursday at San Diego. They trailed for nearly half the game and never led by more than seven, but held on to win 77-72.
The Cougars never trailed in their game on Thursday, beating Portland 72-60 in one of their best performances since their first matchup against the Zags.
While Gonzaga sits at No. 6 in the polls, they’re still fighting to earn a high seed in the NCAA Tournament. While a win over BYU wouldn’t boost their resume much, a loss could very easily cost them a Top-4 seed in the Big Dance.
Key Matchup
Gonzaga Bigs vs. BYU Bigs
In their first matchup, Gonzaga’s three primary post players (Johnathan Williams, Killian Tillie, and Rui Hachimura) got the best of BYU’s two post producers (Yoeli Childs and Luke Worthington).
While the two Cougars combined for 30 out of BYU’s 60 points, the three Bulldogs combined for 42. That was more than the difference in the Zags’ 8-point win.
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Fortunately for the Cougars, Dalton Nixon is completely healthy and ready to share the load in the post. He only played four minutes in Spokane, which was one of his first games back from injury.
Nixon should help even things up in this battle of the bigs, and whichever team wins in the paint will likely win the game.
Prediction
Gonzaga 78, BYU 74