The San Diego Toreros and Saint Mary's Gaels meet Monday in the college basketball WCC Tournament semifinal at the Orleans Arena. The San Diego Toreros enter this contest after beating up on Portland, Santa Clara and BYU. The San Diego Toreros are averaging 71.9 points on 45.6 percent shooting and allowing 68.6 points on 43.9 percent shooting. Isaiah Pineiro is averaging 19.2 points and 9.5 rebounds while Olin Carter III is averaging 15 points and 1.7 assists. Isaiah Wright is the third double-digit scorer and Tyler Williams is grabbing 4.1 rebounds. The San Diego Toreros are shooting 34.7 percent from beyond the arc and 74.7 percent from the free throw line. The San Diego Toreros are allowing 32.8 percent shooting from deep and are grabbing 31.6 rebounds per game. The San Diego Toreros have won five of their last seven non-home games. The Saint Mary's Gaels haven’t played since March 2 and have won five of their last six games. The Saint Mary's Gaels are averaging 73.5 points on 47.3 percent shooting and allowing 65 points on 43.8 percent shooting. Jordan Ford is averaging 21.5 points and 2.6 assists while Malik Fitts is averaging 15.4 points and 7.6 rebounds. Jordan Hunter is grabbing 6.6 rebounds and Tanner Krebs is grabbing 3.9 rebounds. The Saint Mary's Gaels are shooting 37.9 percent from beyond the arc and 74 percent from the free throw line. The Saint Mary's Gaels are allowing 32.5 percent shooting from deep and are grabbing 32.5 rebounds per game. The Saint Mary's Gaels have split their last six non-home games. The Toreros are 4-1 ATS in their last 5 neutral site games, 4-1 ATS in their last 5 vs. West Coast and 4-1 ATS in their last 5 games overall. The Gaels are 2-6 ATS in their last 8 vs. West Coast, 2-7 ATS in their last 9 neutral site games and 2-6 ATS in their last 8 games overall. The Toreros are 3-8 ATS in the last 11 meetings and the favorite is 8-3 ATS in the last 11 meetings. The under is 37-16-2 in Gaels last 55 overall. The under is 6-2 in Toreros last 8 overall. The Saint Mary's Gaels enter this game playing lights out basketball, which includes allowing 36.6 percent shooting and winning by an average of 11.2 points in their last five games, but they haven't played a in a week, so there's potential rust there. The San Diego Toreros were inconsistent throughout the season, but they've lit this tournament on fire with their defense and efficient offense. San Diego has given up nothing easy this tournament and is allowing just 38 percent shooting in its last five games. The San Diego Toreros look like a completely different team than the regular season, and that confidence has to be at an all time high after waxing a good BYU team, a game that was over 10 minutes into play. I have to take a stab with the points. Randy’s Pick San Diego +5 The pick in this article is the opinion of the writer, not a Sports Chat Place site consensus.<doc-sep>LAS VEGAS — St. Mary’s kept its hopes of an NCAA Tournament berth alive Monday night with a 69-62 win over San Diego in the WCC semifinals at Orleans Arena. First-team all-conference guard Jordan Ford scored a team-high 21 points as the Gaels (21-11) advanced to Tuesday night’s conference title game against Gonzaga. It’s the eighth time in 11 years St. Mary’s has reached the WCC final. “It was a good team effort and we’re happy to get out of it with a win,” St. Mary’s head coach Randy Bennett said. St. Mary’s and No. 1 Gonzaga (30-2) will play for the WCC’s automatic NCAA Tournament bid Tuesday. The Zags humbled Pepperdine 100-74 in Monday’s first semi. Seventh-seeded San Diego (21-14) had won three WCC tournament games before falling Monday. St. Mary’s forward Malik Fitts added 19 points and 12 rebounds in the win, scoring the game’s final three points at the foul line. “I know the guys, the coaching staff, everybody is going to be 100 percent dialed in and ready to compete” against Gonzaga, Fitts said. St. Mary’s got a surprising offensive spark from redshirt sophomore point guard Tommy Kuhse, who scored 15 points, two shy of his career high. Tuesday’s WCC finals Women 1 p.m. BYU (24-6) vs. Gonzaga (28-3), ESPNU Men 6 p.m. St. Mary's (21-11) vs. Gonzaga (30-2), ESPN/1050 See More Collapse Isaiah Wright led the Toreros with a game-high 22 points on 8-for-16 shooting. Isaiah Pineiro added 16 and had a chance to give USD a lead with 40 seconds left. Trailing 62-60, he hoisted a 3-point try from the corner that came up short. Pineiro went 0-for-5 from deep as the Toreros were held to 7-for-23 shooting from beyond the arc. “I thought we showed great effort,” Wright said, “and the better team won tonight.” Kuhse connected on two free throws after the Pineiro miss to push the gap back to two possessions. Much of the second half had all the stereotypical drama of March basketball. Neither team led by more than five until Ford finished a three-point play to put the Gaels up 58-52 with 5:21 remaining. They led the rest of the way. The semifinal was knotted five times in the second half before Ford’s and-one capped an 8-0 run. The Gaels connected on 7 of 10 shots to start the game and grew their first-half lead to as large as 22-12 following a Ford trey. San Diego quickly responded with a 12-5 run to cut the margin to 27-24 with 6:25 left in the first half after a Pineiro steal and layup in transition, leading to a Bennett timeout. Neither team scored the next 3:24, going a combined 0-for-9 from the floor, before Tanner Krebs removed the lid from the St. Mary’s hoop with a jumper. The Gaels improved to 21-1 when leading at the half. The Gaels lost both regular-season matchups to the Bulldogs, getting blasted 94-46 in Spokane, and falling 69-54 in Moraga in the final game of the regular season. Gonzaga has won six consecutive WCC tournament titles. Nathan Shoup is a freelance writer.<doc-sep>Want even more betting news? Sign up for VSiN's free daily newsletter . Listen Live to VSiN's sports betting shows Want even more betting news? Sign up for VSiN's free daily newsletter . Listen Live to VSiN's sports betting shows San Diego has won three games in the West Coast Conference Tournament to get to the semifinals and has a St. Mary’s team that had a bye to this point on deck. The last time these two met, St. Mary’s got a 66-46 home win on Feb. 23 to sweep the season series, but the Toreros have gone 4-1 since that loss, covering all but one of those spreads. Neither of these teams goes very far into its bench. Jordan Ford of St. Mary’s ranks 31st in the country among all Division I players in minutes per game while San Diego’s guards Isaiah Wright and Tyler Williams both are in the top 60. Though St. Mary’s ranks 14th among Division I teams in rebounding rate, both teams pull in about the same amount of rebounds per game, and San Diego’s Isaiah Pinero is the best true post player in this contest. St. Mary’s also does not have as much ball movement as San Diego and relies a lot on guys creating points on one-on-one situations. The Gaels are 352nd among 353 Division I teams in assists per made field goal rate, which should help a San Diego defense which ranks 284th in the country in opponent’s free throws made per 100 possessions. San Diego has played five total games at Orleans Arena and gone 4-1 straight up and against the spread in those games. Prior to the WCC Tournament, San Diego played in December’s Continental Tires Classic in this arena, defeating Washington State and losing in double overtime to a fully healthy Drake group. The court familiarity coupled with revenge and too little ball movement from the Gaels should give a hot San Diego bunch a cover and a chance to win outright. The play: San Diego, +5.<doc-sep>
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Jordan Ford scored 21 points and Saint Mary's beat San Diego 69-62 on Monday night in the semifinals of the West Coast Conference Tournament. Saint Mary's (21-11) will meet top-ranked Gonzaga in the championship game for the eighth time in 11 years. The Gaels are 2-5 in the previous meetings, with their last championship coming in 2012. The Gaels used a 13-4 run in the second half to steal momentum from the scrappy Toreros, who were playing in their first tournament semifinal since 2013. Saint Mary's improved to 53-36 all-time against the Toreros. Saint Mary's, which swept the regular-season series with San Diego, winning by an average margin of 18.5 points, built a first-half lead to 10, but had its hands full with a team that was brewing with confidence after winning three games in three days to arrive in the semis. San Diego pulled within two with 32 seconds remaining, but Tanner Krebs and Malik Fitts nailed five of six free throws for the Gaels down the stretch. Fitts finished with 19 points and 12 rebounds, his sixth double-double of the season, while Tommy Kuhse chipped in with 15 points. Isaiah Wright had 22 points for San Diego (21-14). Toreros forward Isaiah Pineiro, who came in averaging 19.2 points and 9.5 rebounds, finished with 16 points and seven rebounds. The Gaels dominated in the paint, outscoring San Diego 40-18. BIG PICTURE San Diego The Toreros had lost six straight tournament games heading into this year's event. But their second-round win over Santa Clara secured the team's second straight 20-win season — the first time the program has accomplished the feat since moving to Division I during the 1979-80 season. Saint Mary's The Gaels will have less than 24 hours to prepare for their biggest nemesis. Gonzaga swept the regular-season series, winning by 48 in Spokane and 14 on Saint Mary's home court in the season finale on March 2. UP NEXT San Diego After the Toreros' late-season push and strong showing in the WCC Tournament, they await their fate for a postseason invite. Saint Mary's The Gaels will face Gonzaga in Tuesday's championship game.