WAC Tournament: Getting Ready

Ahead of the Western Athletic Conference Title Game, we should take a second to recognize what has happened to this point. We have seen players with ferocious dunks, players scoring from all ends of the court, and straight up ballers.

As many expected, we have the No. 1 seeded UVU Wolverines who have never been dancing and the No. 2 seeded GCU Lopes who have been to the dance 4 of the last 5 seasons under Bryce Drew. But before we lock in on the final game kicking off at 11:30 EST, lets take a second to see how we got there!

Wac Semis: No 1. UVU Vs No. 5 Seattle:

Toolson dunks on the crowd in UVU's rout of Seattle (Jay Drowns)

Early on in this game, everything that possibly could go wrong for the Wolverines went wrong. They couldn't score, they were turning the ball over left and right, and Seattle was all over them on defense. The Wolverines were so out of sorts that they went as far as playing 11 guys last night trying to find some rhythm. Even after forcing 11 turnovers in the first half, the Red Hawks were down big headed into the locker room. Coach Chris Victor was furious, the boys didn't seem like they wanted to play at all.

The second half was much of the same from the Red Hawks. You can play the best defense in the world, but a good defense is only as good as your offense on the other end. You can hold the opposing team to 20 points in a game, but if you can't score 21, your defense was all for naught. This was the story for the Red Hawks tonight. Forcing a total of 15 turnovers and holding the Wolverines to 26% from the 3 point arc is typically good enough to get the job done. Until you realize that the Red Hawks shot 36% from the field and 25% from behind the arc. Similarly to the quarter-final game, the Red Hawks could not distribute their scoring with 66% of their scoring coming from Montcrieffe and Williamson. If the Red Hawks could have found some scoring early, they may have had a chance to take down the No. 1 seeded Wolverines.

Wac Semis: No. 2 GCU Vs No. 3 CBU

Caleb Shaw drives the lane vs CBU (David Kadlubowski)

Similarly to the first two games between these 2 squads, there was nothing but drama throughout the game. Early on, there were plenty of fouls, little scoring, and ratcheted up defense. The Lopes scored a whopping 8 points in the first 9 minutes of the game. The only reason they were even still in the game was because CBU also couldn't find their stroke and scored 10 of their own in that same timeframe. Early on in the game, I head fans from around the stadium and the nerves surrounding this game. Pre-season Favorites, Tournament Favorites, all to not even make it to the finals.

Something must have switched in the brains of those guys on the court because the final 5 minutes of the first half, the Lopes turned it on, extended the lead, and went into the locker room up 9 on the back of Jakobe Coles and Tyon Grant Foster. Going into the locker room up 9 didnt mean much considering that the Lopes gave up a 20-point lead at home just 3 weeks earlier in the final 5 minutes of their last contest. Bryce Drew had words with the boys and they locked in on the second half. Coming out of the locker room, they ballooned the lead to 17 where it stayed for a majority of the second half, until, Dom Daniels found his stroke for the Lancers. It was 17, then 14, then 10. Lopes fans closed their eyes as they saw this happen just 3 weeks earlier. The lead went down to as little as 5 before Bryce Drew called his final timeout to rally his boys.

He must have told his boys to lock in because that is exactly what they did. They turned into defensive stallwarts on one end and it turned into transition points on the other end. A TGF dunk, a Williams bucket in transition and all of a sudden the lead was 11 with just under 2 minutes to play. CBU fans start filing out of the stadium one by one. A late 3 by Dom Daniels cuts the lead to 8 and the Lancers have life. With 1.1 seconds left, down 7 points, Rick Croy calls timeout and gets his team to foul the inbound. GCU -8.5 bettors rejoice as Tyon Grant Foster knocks down 2 free throws to cover the spread.

While it was certainly another one where the Lopes fans probably held their breath for a majority of the game, they find themselves in the finals yet again looking for a 3rd straight WAC Tournament title and 4 in the last 5 seasons.