Gonzaga’s win streak against West Coast Conference opponents was snapped Saturday night at 22 games by the University of San Francisco. USF was led by guard Dior Lowhorn’s 22 points en route to their 81-77 upset of the WCC-leading Zags. Lowhorn, the WCC’s leading scorer the past two seasons, led the USF attack that took the Zags into overtime before closing out the victory. Freshman Elias Harris led the Zags effort with 21 points, while fellow standout Matt Bouldin posted 15 points and 12 rebounds. The upset marks an end to USF’s three-game losing streak and simultaneously snaps Gonzaga’s nine-game winning streak, along with their impressive conference run.
With the Gonzaga loss, Saint Mary’s moves up a spot in WCC standings. The Gaels and Zags are now in a lock for first place with identical 6-1 conference records. Next in line sits Portland in third place (5-2), USF and
Pepperdine tied for fourth (3-4), LMU and San Diego tied for sixth (2-5) and Santa Clara rounding out in eighth (1-6).
Four weeks into conference play and the WCC has continued to solidify its presence on the national stage. With Gonzaga, St. Mary’s and Portland all ranked in CollegeInsider.com’s Mid-Major top-25 as of January 31st (#1, #8, and #22), the WCC continues to make its case as a top conference amongst mid-major and BCS competition. The WCC has even outplayed its Western-region counterparts of the Pac-10, WAC and Big West against BCS conference teams. Posting a 14-17 record against teams from the six major conferences, the WCC is ahead of the Pac-10 (9-24), the Big West (2-19) and the WAC (0-7) in that respect.
