Matt Carlino added 18 points and five assists for the Cougars (19-6, 7-3 West Coast Conference) and Brandon Davies had 15 points. Anson Winder got his first start and had 10 points, five assists and three steals.

Reserve Sam Downer scored 15 points for Gonzaga (17-4, 7-2). Gary Bell Jr. added 14 for the Bulldogs, Marquise Carter had 13 and Robert Sacre 11.

The Cougars, who had 12 steals in the first half, led 38-24 at the break. BYU stretched the lead to 55-36 with 13:30 to go before the Bulldogs trimmed it to nine in the final 2 minutes.

The Bulldogs were only 3 of 19 from 3-point range, and BYU was slightly better at 3 of 12. The Cougars outscored Gonzaga 44-36 in the paint and had 22 points off 19 turnovers.

The inaugural WCC meeting between the Bulldogs and first-year member BYU takes place Thursday at 8 p.m. PST at the Marriott Center in Provo, Utah. The Bulldogs, 17-3 overall and 7-1 in the WCC, are chasing undefeated (10-0) league-leader Saint Mary’s College. The Gaels defeated Gonzaga in their first meeting in Moraga, Calif., and the Gaels have also handed BYU two of their three WCC losses as the Cougars come into Thursday 6-3 in the WCC. The game is equally as big for BYU, as a loss to the Bulldogs would put them three games behind in the loss column. The top two seeds into the WCC Tournament receive double-byes into the semifinals.

Gonzaga and BYU have met just once, that meeting coming last March in the NCAA Tournament Third Round in Denver, Colo. The Cougars, led by Player of the Year Jimmer Fredette’s 34 points, handled the Bulldogs 89-67.

Thursday’s game features two of the top three NCAA Division I active coaches based on winning percentage in Gonzaga’s Mark Few and BYU’s Dave Rose. Few is second with a career record of 333-86 for a winning percentage of .795 in his 13^th year as head coach of the Bulldogs. Rose is third with a career mark of 177-50 for a winning percentage of .780 in his seventh year as head coach of the Cougars. Roy Williams of the University of North Carolina heads the list with a record of 664-165 in his 24^th season.

The Bulldogs, 17-3 overall and 7-1 in the West Coast Conference, returned to the rankings after a two-week absence. Gonzaga was ranked as high as 19^th this season.

Voters gave the Bulldogs 141 points, well ahead of No. 25 Vanderbilt University at 102 and well behind No. 23 Michigan State University with 305 points.

The Bulldogs face a major hurdle this week when they visit first-year WCC member BYU for the first time in school history. The Bulldogs hold a two-game lead in the loss column over the 6-3 Cougars, who lost to 10-0 league-leader Saint Mary’s College at home last Saturday as the Gaels swept the season series with the Cougars.

Gonzaga will face BYU Thursday at 8 p.m. PST on ESPN2, then travel to Pepperdine University Saturday prior to returning home for what appears to be one of the biggest games of the WCC season Feb. 9 when Saint Mary’s visits the McCarthey Athletic Center.

In the USPN/USA Today vote of coaches, the Bulldogs are the first team receiving votes with 68 points, three behind No. 25 University of Louisville.

The University of Kentucky holds the top spot in both polls, garnering 63 of the possible 65 first-place votes in the AP poll and all 31 votes in the ESPN/USA Today Top 25.

• Others receiving votes: Harvard 69, Louisville 65, Kansas State 40, West Virginia 12, Wichita State 9, Nevada 6, Notre Dame 6, Southern Miss 5, Long Beach State 3, Iowa State 3, Connecticut 2, Iona 2, Illinois 1

• Dropped from rankings: Kansas State 22, Connecticut 24

Edi, a junior college transfer, had 10 points in the first half, one more than his previous Gonzaga high, as the Bulldogs used a closing 10-1 flourish to build a 41-32 halftime lead.

“Guy can do some things. We’re still trying as he brings his energy on defense and flashes of brilliance on offense and other things. We’re just trying to get those other things kind of out there but he really helped us tonight. He was big,” Gonzaga head coach Mark Few said.

Three starters reached double figures for Gonzaga (15-3, 5-1 West Coast) – Elias Harris and Robert Sacre with 14 apiece, and Kevin Pangos with 12.
Few also credited his defense with being instrumental in the victory as the Dons shot 37 percent from the field in the first half.

“I thought our defense was really good tonight. For the most part we had a lot of deflections and we got into the gaps. They are a hard team to play against. They really spread you out and bounce you,” Few noted. “That’s a good basketball team. That’s the same team that got third in the league last year and played us tough. To be able to get an extension of a lead on them I told our guys they deserve a lot of credit.”

The game was the first for the Buldogs in front of their students since Dec. 15 when finals ended and semester break began, the Bulldogs playing five games with a minimal student turnout. Classes resumed Wednesday, and Few was glad to have the Kennel Club back in action.

“It’s great. It’s great. It’s been a long, long time. In 23 years I don’t remember this long of a break so I think it’s great for our guys. We’ve been here most of the time by ourselves. It’s been kind of like a ghost town so it’s really nice to feel the energy in the building,” Few said.

Angelo Caloiaro had 14 points and nine rebounds and was the only player to score in double figures for San Francisco (12-9, 2-5), which hasn’t won a game at Gonzaga since Feb. 10, 1989. The Bulldogs have won 25 of the past 28 meetings between the schools.
Gonzaga will remain home Saturday to face the University of San Diego coached by former Bulldog assistant Bill Grier. Few said USD has some good young talent.

“San Diego’s got some young guards that are starting to play well, and really shooting and scoring it. We’ll have to do a good job on that,” Few said. “Obviously Billy’s a great coach and nobody knows us better than he does so we’ll have to prepare for just about anything.”

Few, in his 13th season as head coach and 23rd year overall with the Buldogs, warned that teams can’t take a night off in the WCC.

“You just can’t take a night off in this league. LMU goes into BYU and wins by 16. I think that tells you the quality of some of the other teams in this league. You’ve got to be leery and you’ve got to bring it every night,” Few said.

Matthew Dellavedova hit five 3-pointers on the way to 26 points and also dished out six assists, and Saint Mary’s pulled off a rare rout of No. 21 Gonzaga with an 83-62 win Thursday night in a matchup of the West Coast Conference’s top teams.

The Gaels took Gonzaga out of its game on both ends of the floor and flustered big man Robert Sacre in the paint.

”Their inside guys thoroughly outplayed our inside guys, plain and simple,” Few said. ”We could never get consecutive stops. We went to a zone and got a couple of stops, but they also pressed into us on offense and we weren’t getting good ball screens and we were holding onto the ball a little bit too long, a little bit too much one-on-one. They just thoroughly outplayed us.”

Brad Waldow added 17 points and 10 rebounds and Stephen Holt had 13 points and six assists for the Gaels (16-2, 5-0) at a rocking McKeon Pavilion, where a standing-room only crowd packed the arena for a nationally televised showdown that’s always the biggest draw of the season here. Students stormed the court after the final buzzer.

”It’s a really big rivalry game. We’re happy to get a win and keep it going in conference,” Dellavedova said. ”We definitely defended well inside. We worked really hard on our defense. We had confidence we could win the game.”

Saint Mary’s beat the Zags 81-62 in the WCC tournament final during the school’s 2010 run to the NCAA tournament regional semifinals.

Elias Harris had 17 points and 11 rebounds and Kevin Pangos scored 12 for the Bulldogs (13-3, 3-1), who had their eight-game winning streak snapped. Gonzaga lost in early December to Illinois and Michigan State, marking another tough nonconference schedule under Few.

Clint Steindl knocked down a 3 with 15:25 left that put Saint Mary’s ahead 48-37 and the Gaels made key stops down the stretch to extend the lead. They won their sixth straight since losing to now-No. 4 Baylor 72-59 on Dec. 22.

”They outhustled us, they outcompeted us,” Harris said.

Dellavedova hit big 3s with 10:05 left, at the 5:22 mark and again with 3:43 remaining to keep his team in control. He had a lay-in with 2:52 to go and jumped in the passing lanes on defense to cause havoc for the Zags.

The gutsy Australian guard – who had a career-high 27 points in Monday’s win over San Francisco – sat down to a rousing ovation with 1:29 left. He finished 10 for 16 from the field – 5 of 10 from long range – and scored 15 of his points in the first half, including six during an 8-0 spurt to end the half and give the Gaels a 37-29 lead at the break.

Saint Mary’s held Gonzaga’s big men in check. Gaels center and leading scorer Rob Jones did his part on both ends despite getting just two points to go with 11 rebounds and eight assists.

”Rob Jones probably played the best game I’ve seen anybody play without scoring ’til the end,” Bennett said. ”We didn’t give them easy baskets and we were able to take away their inside game.”

The 7-foot Sacre, Gonzaga’s third-leading scorer at 11.5 points per game, missed all four of his field goal tries in the first half and began the final 20 minutes on the bench with Sam Dower in the game instead. Sacre checked in with 15:23 to play and wound up with four points on 1-for-7 shooting and three rebounds.

This was a rare lopsided result in one of the nation’s more underrated rivalries.

”I think this team is better than the one last year. Going into this game I thought, this is one of their better teams in a while,” Saint Mary’s coach Randy Bennett said of the Zags. ”We played at a high level.”

Gonzaga had won the last two meetings overall and three in a row on the Gaels’ home court despite raucous sellout crowds and fans standing in the corners and lining both baselines. The Zags also captured the West Coast Conference tournament crown last season with a 75-63 victory to secure the league’s automatic NCAA tournament bid.

Saint Mary’s was stunned by Kent State 71-70 in the first round of last year’s NIT.

Gonzaga trailed at halftime for the first time since being down one point at the break before losing 74-67 at home to Michigan State on Dec. 10.

These teams have combined to win every WCC regular-season title since 2001. The perennial favorite Zags were picked by the WCC coaches to win a 12th consecutive crown, with Saint Mary’s at No. 2.

The Gaels and Zags are two of eight teams in Division I – along with WCC newcomer BYU – to win at least 25 games in each of the last four seasons.

Several former stars from both schools were in attendance – ex-Saint Mary’s center Omar Samhan and David Pendergraft of Gonzaga. Matt Santangelo, another former Zags great, worked the game for TV.

Gonzaga, the conference’s most dominant team for more than a decade, pulled off an 89-85 overtime victory the Gaels’ home court last season. That kept Saint Mary’s from winning its first outright regular-season WCC championship since 1989.

The Zags also won 89-82 at McKeon in 2010.

Gonzaga University fans would obviously vote for the “Kennel Club.” Now you have your chance.

The Kennel Club is one of nearly 80 schools participating in the Naismith Student Section of the Year Award.

By clicking here, Bulldog fans can vote for the Kennel Club.

The Naismith Student Section of the Year Award, which is presented through a partnership of The Collegiate Licensing Company (CLC), a division of IMG College, and the Atlanta Tipoff Club, administrators of the Naismith Awards, is dedicated to celebrating fans that love college hoops and provide support to their college basketball team with devotion and passion.

“We are excited that so many Division I basketball schools are touting their student section as the best in college basketball,” said Eric Oberman, Executive Director of the Atlanta Tipoff Club.

“Now it’s time for students, alumni and fans of these schools across the country to make their votes count to help their school win this award.”

The Naismith Student Section of the Year Award will be determined through two rounds of public votes, combined with a scoring of finalists by the Naismith Awards Board of Selectors,

which will review criteria such as the student section’s name and attendance, as well as photos,

video, and a write‐up submitted by the nominating school.

“College basketball student sections love college hoops and bring the emotion, energy, and spirit that defines the home court advantage, and we want to celebrate that,” added Tim

Hawks, Senior Director of Brand & Retail Development for CLC. “We need fans to vote now and

vote often to help ensure their school—and not their rival—gets recognized for the spirit they

pour into supporting their team.”

The winning student section gets bragging rights, while the winning school will receive $5,000 for its athletic association.

Participating schools include:

Arizona State Sun Devils

Arizona Wildcats

Arkansas Razorbacks

Baylor Bears

Boston College Eagles

Cal Bears

Central Florida Knights

Clemson Tigers

Colorado Buffaloes

Drexel Dragons

Duke Blue Devils

East Carolina Pirates

Eastern Michigan Eagles

Florida Atlantic Owls

Florida Gators

Florida State Seminoles

Fordham Rams

Fresno State Bulldogs

George Mason Patriots

George Washington Colonials

Georgetown Hoyas

Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets

GONZAGA BULLDOGS

Illinois Fighting Illini

Indiana Hoosiers

Kansas Jayhawks

Kentucky Wildcats

Louisville Cardinals

LSU Tigers

Marquette Golden Eagles

Marshall Thundering Herd

Memphis Tigers

Miami Hurricanes

Michigan Wolverines

Michigan State Spartans

Middle Tennessee State Blue Raiders

Minnesota Golden Gophers

Missouri State Bears

Montana Grizzlies

Nebraska Cornhuskers

Nevada Wolf Pack

New Mexico Lobos

North Carolina A&T Aggies

Northwestern Wildcats

Oakland Golden Grizzlies

Oklahoma Sooners

Oklahoma State Cowboys

Ole Miss Rebels

Penn State Nittany Lions

Pitt Panthers

Providence Friars

Purdue Boilermakers

Rhode Island Rams

Rice Owls

Rutgers Scarlet Knights

Saint Joseph’s Hawks

Sam Houston State Bearkats

San Diego State Aztecs

SMU Mustangs

Saint Louis Billikens

Syracuse Orange

Temple Owls

Tennessee Volunteers

Texas A&M Aggies

Texas Longhorns

Texas Tech Red Raiders

Tulane Green Wave

UC Davis Aggies

UCLA Bruins

Utah Utes

Utah State Aggies

Vanderbilt Commodores

Villanova Wildcats

Virginia Cavaliers

Wake Forest Demon Deacons

West Virginia Mountaineers

Western Carolina Catamounts

Wisconsin Badgers

Wyoming Cowboys

The 13-2 Bulldogs remained undefeated in the West Coast Conference with a pair of home wins last week over Pepperdine University and Santa Clara University. The Bulldogs downed the Waves 73-45 and, after falling behind 10-0, came back to rout SCU 82-60.

The Bulldogs, 25^th in last week’s AP poll, had 347 votes to out-distance No. 22 San Diego State University and fall just 15 points shy of No. 20 Mississippi State University.

Gonzaga returned to the ESPN/USA Today rankings for the first time since Dec. 5 when the Bulldogs were ranked 22^nd. Gonzaga earned 103 points in moving back into the poll.

Syracuse was the near-unanimous No. 1 in both polls, received 60 of 65 first-place votes in the AP poll and 30 of 31 votes in the ESPN/USA Today rankings. No. 2 University of Kentucky received the other first-place votes in both polls.

Gonzaga is on the road for a pair of WCC contests this week, facing Saint Mary’s College Thursday and Loyola Marymount University Saturday. Gonzaga and SMC are both 3-0 with the Gaels heading into a Monday night contest with the University of San Francisco prior to facing the Bulldogs.

For complete rankings, click here.

“‘We have to outrebound them. They’re playing harder than us. We have to match their intensity and just play our game,’” Dower recalled Few saying.

Dower scored 17 points and Gonzaga (No. 25 AP) broke away in the second half for an 80-58 victory over Clara on Saturday night, the Bulldogs’ eighth-straight win.

“We were rushing our shots. In the second half we started shooting our shots,” Dower said.

Freshman Gary Bell Jr. added 15 points for the Bulldogs (13-2,3-0 West Coast Conference), who broke the game open early in the second half with an 18-0 run. The Zags haven’t allowed more than 65 during their streak.

Santa Clara (8-7, 0-2) fell to 0-5 on the road with its third straight loss. Raymond Cowels III led the Broncos with 13 points and Brandon Clark had 12.

Bell also did most of the defensive work that limited junior guard Kevin Foster, who torched them for 36 and 29 points in two games last season, to nine points, half his average.

Foster, who is third in the nation in 3-pointers at 3.8 a game and led the nation last season, was 2 of 9 from the field and 0 of 4 from 3-point range. He had nine 3-pointers in Spokane last season.

“When you play good defense on somebody and they keep hitting hard shots, you just have to keep playing. Today he just missed them,” Bell said. “The big guys extended on the screens and he couldn’t get wide-open looks. It helped me get back to contest his shots. He has a quick release.”

Few said: “Gary has built a lot of trust in the staff and his teammates. … He always has energy on defense. … He’s the same way in practice.”

Three free throws by Foster a minute into the second half gave Santa Clara its last lead at 31-30, but Gonzaga reeled off 18 straight points, including back-to-back 3-pointets by Kevin Pangos, who finished with 10 points and five assists, consecutive layups by Bell and six points by Elias Harris, who finished with 12.

The Broncos, scoreless for 5:55, missed eight straight shots while the Bulldogs were making six of seven.

That stretched into a 26-4 run, capped by a fast-break layup by David Stockton, for a 21-point lead at 56-35 at the 10:04 mark.

“They were switching out on everything,” Bell said. “We just had to adjust. We did that in the second half. Luckily it wasn’t too late.”

Santa Clara scored the first 10 points of the game, the first eight by Cowels, who had consecutive 3-pointers, before Bell made a layup for Gonzaga almost 5 minutes in.

A six-point run fueled by Marquise Carter, two short baskets around an assist to Robert Sacre, pulled the Bulldogs back into the game.

The Broncos, behind Cowels’ 10 points, led the entire first half until Dower’s 3-pointer with 37 seconds left gave the Bulldogs a 28-26 lead at the break. Dower had 11 at the half, which closed with Santa Clara in a scoring drought of 4:25.

“We spotted them 10 points and then for the most part I thought we played really, really good defense all night,” Few said. “It took a while for us to get a rhythm offensively. They kind of were switching defenses and jump up quite a bit. Once our guys started playing, then they were fine.”

Neither team shot well in the first half, the Broncos connecting 36 percent, though they hit four of 10 3s, and Gonzaga 39 percent, going just 2 of 9 from behind the arc. But Gonzaga turned that around in the second half, shooting 69 percent while SCU finished the game at 38 percent.

“Coach wanted me to stay aggressive,” said the freshman out of Kentridge High, who came in averaging 8.0 points per game.

Bell scored 12 points in the first half and then sat for most of the second half.

Robert Sacre and Kevin Pangos each scored 11 points for Gonzaga (12-2, 2-0 West Coast Conference), which has won seven straight since suffering consecutive losses to Illinois and Michigan State.

The Zags have beaten Pepperdine 21 times since their last loss to the Waves in 2002 – their longest current streak against a WCC rival.

Jordan Baker scored 10 points to lead Pepperdine (7-7, 1-2), which has not beaten a ranked opponent since 1994.

The Waves, who came in averaging 60 points per game, never led and shot just 28.3 percent from the field against Gonzaga’s pressure defense. Their season-low total was 39 points in a loss to UCLA.

“Our defense was very, very good for 40 minutes tonight,” Gonzaga coach Mark Few said.

Gonzaga has not allowed an opponent to score more than 65 points during its winning streak.

The Zags out-rebounded the Waves 41-37 and forced them into 20 turnovers.

Gonzaga didn’t have a great shooting night, either, making just 41 percent.

Elias Harris added 10 points and eight rebounds for Gonzaga.

“We hold them to 17 (points) until the six-minute mark” of the first half, Pepperdine coach Marty Wilson said. “Then we lost our poise, moreso offensively against their press. They scored 21 points in the last six minutes. That’s the disappointment.”

Gonzaga opened the game with a 12-3 run, but the Waves replied with a 9-3 surge to close to 15-12. Pepperdine hit a cold patch and scored just two points over the next six minutes and the Bulldogs took a 28-14 lead.

“We moved the ball and got the shots we wanted, and they finally started dropping,” Few said.

Gonzaga led 38-20 at halftime, having outscored the Waves 23-8 over the final 11 minutes. Pepperdine shot just 29 percent in the first half while Gonzaga hit 41 percent.

The Bulldogs opened the second half with a 12-3 run to build a 50-24 lead and were not threatened the rest of the way as Few substituted liberally.

Freshman guards Bell and Pangos combined for 26 points and five assists.

“I know how good they are,” Wilson said of the two guards. “Mark’s done a good job of implementing them, especially being young guys new to the system.”

Gonzaga remains home Saturday to face Santa Clara at 5 p.m., the Broncos losing their WCC opener at Portland 84-74 Thursday as the Pilots evened their league mark at 1-1.

By NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS

The Associated Press

RPI stands for Ratings Percentage Index and rates every men’s college basketball squad on a weighted scale taking into factors such things as a team’s winning percentage, its opponents’ winning percentage and the winning percentage of those opponents’ opponents. In 2004 the RPI was modified to account for differences in home and away games.

Eight teams on Gonzaga’s schedule have a RPI in the top 100 – Michigan State University (8), fellow West Coast Conference foe Saint Mary’s College (24), University of Illinois (25), University of Arizona (56), Oral Roberts University (64), Butler University (89), Xavier University (58) and WCC first-year member BYU (66).

The Bulldogs defeated Arizona, Oral Roberts, Butler and Xavier; lost to Illinois and Michigan State, and have yet to play Saint Mary’s and BYU.

The Bulldogs are behind Syracuse University, Duke University, University of Connecticut, Seton Hall University and Baylor University. Trailing Gonzaga are the University of Kentucky, MSU, Ohio State University and Georgetown University to round out the top 10. There are 344 teams in NCAA Division I basketball.

For the complete rankings click here.