Storm

The latest news and analysis on college and pro women's basketball.

Gonzaga (21-5, 11-1) is on an eight-game win streak and moving closer to its ninth consecutive West Coast Conference championship. The regular-season title wouldn’t have been as close without a key 69-54 win against Saint Mary’s (16-7, 8-3) in Spokane on Thursday. The game was the Zags’ fifth sell out of the season.

GU lost to SMC 54-51 early in the WCC season, sounding alarms that coach Kelly Graves’ revamped, youthful squad possiblly couldn’t hold up the Zags’ storied reign on the conference. But Gonzaga has since moved to a 2.5-game lead in WCC standings and is primed to be part of the NCAA tournament as a No. 11 seed, according to ESPN’s latest bracketology release.

The Zags are hosting the NCAA first and second rounds in March at McCarthey Athletic Center.

Below is video of Thursday’s postgame interviews. Gonzaga hosts San Francisco (10-15, 3-9) on Saturday at the MAC.

Here are clips from Gonzaga’s win.

Seattle University (14-9, 11-3 Western Athletic Conference) remains in pursuit of its first NCAA tournament berth in program history after a 87-74 win at Louisiana Tech (11-13, 7-6) on Thursday. SU is a half-game behind Utah State for the regular-season conference lead with four games remaining, one of those matchups on the road.

Utah State (14-10, 11-12) has five games remaining, three on the road.

The WAC has one NCAA automatic bid from its conference tournament and typically the champion is the only representative among the field of 64. Currently Utah State is pegged for that spot.

The Redhawks split games with the Aggies this season, both winning on their respective home court. The WAC tournament is March 12-16 in Las Vegas.

ESPN has the Aggies as a No. 16 seed in the NCAA tournament. It’s projected to play No. 1 seed Stanford (22-2, 11-1 Pac-12) at Stanford in the NCAA opening round.

Seattle U plays at Texas-Arlington (5-18, 3-10) on Saturday to complete its final road trip of the season. SU hosts Texas State (9-14, 3-10) on Thursday at Connolly Center.