Gonzaga Avoids Another Upset

There was no debate over who would take Gonzaga’s last shot.

Adam Morrison, the team’s leading scorer, made a jumper with less than a second left to push No. 13 Gonzaga past San Francisco, 75-73, on Saturday at Spokane, Wash., to bolster the Bulldogs toward their fifth consecutive West Coast Conference regular-season title.

Morrison scored a career-high 28 points for Gonzaga, which improved to 21-4 overall, 11-2 in the conference, avenged an earlier loss to the Dons (14-11, 5-7) and stayed 1 1/2 games ahead of St. Mary’s.

“They sort of set a screen and let me go to work. Derek Raivio gave me some room,” Morrison said of the Bulldogs’ point guard, who finished with nine points and nine assists.

Gonzaga’s J.P. Batista had 17 points, including two free throws to tie it at 73-73 after San Francisco staged a furious rally in the second half. Morrison secured the win with a jumper from near the three-point line.

Ronny Turiaf, who had 14 points and grabbed eight rebounds for Gonzaga, said the final shot was designed with Morrison in mind.

“We know what Adam can do, and he’s going to get a good shot,” Turiaf said. “That’s the mark of a good player.”

Gonzaga Coach Mark Few expects those types of shots from Morrison, a sophomore.

“Adam can do that. He can really make plays and make shots, you know, just like that one at the end. It’s stuff he does all the time in practice,” Few said. “We wanted to go to him and wind it down and have him take the shot.”

John Cox had 19 of his 25 points in the second half for San Francisco and Tyrone Riley had 23 points and nine rebounds.

Trailing by 11 points at halftime, the Dons cut into the Bulldogs’ lead behind the three-point shooting of Cox. Dommanic Ingerson’s three-point basket with 1:06 left gave the Dons their first lead at 72-71.

“They were terrific on offense. They were hitting tough shots and they were just a handful,” Few said. “ ... They were really feeling good about themselves. Luckily, we held on.”

St. Mary’s 81, Pepperdine 69 -- Paul Marigney had a season-high 32 points to lead the Gaels (22-7, 9-3) over the Waves (15-13, 5-8) at Moraga.

Marigney put St Mary’s ahead for good, 56-55, with a three-pointer with 9:02 to play. He made two more free throws to build the lead to three as the Gaels went on a 14-4 run to break open the game.

St. Mary’s, playing its final home game of the season, wound up 15-1 at home -- the best home record and most home wins in school history.

Yakhouba Diawara led Pepperdine with 23 points but was held to only two in the last 12 minutes.

Santa Clara 78, Loyola Marymount 70 -- Travis Niesen scored 17 of his 23 points in the second half to lead the Broncos (14-13, 7-5) over the Lions (11-15, 3-10) at Santa Clara.

Doron Perkins had 21 points and 10 rebounds as Santa Clara won for only the second time in 12 games when trailing at halftime.

Wes Wardrop scored a career-high 22 points for Loyola, which has lost four in a row. After starting the season 8-3, the Lions have lost 12 of 15.