10A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 2018
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Gary Henley | Sports Reporter
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No. 6 Gonzaga beats BYU
for sixth straight WCC title
By JOHN MARSHALL
Associated Press
AP Photo/Isaac Brekken
Gonzaga’s Josh Perkins passes under BYU’s TJ Haws during the first
half of the West Coast Conference tournament championship game
Tuesday in Las Vegas.
LAS VEGAS — Gonzaga seemed
headed for a dog fight with BYU to
get a sixth straight West Coast Confer-
ence title. Once the Bulldogs started
soaring, there was no stopping them.
Racing out for dunks and 3-point-
ers in transition, No. 6 Gonzaga over-
whelmed BYU during a massive run
to blow out the Cougars 74-54 on
Tuesday night for its sixth straight
WCC tournament title.
“That’s probably as good a run I’ve
been a part of in 28 years at Gonzaga,
definitely in 19 years as head coach,”
Gonzaga coach Mark Few said. “Fan-
tastic defense that led to great offense.
It was just a thing of beauty to see.”
Gonzaga (30-4), the regular-sea-
son champion, locked into a defen-
sive battle with BYU (24-10) for
most of the first half. The Zags revved
it up at both ends and turned it into
a title-game rout, reeling off a half-
time-spanning 36-6 run to win their
17th WCC overall title.
Killian Tillie had 22 points, Zach
Norvell Jr. added 17 and the Bull-
dogs held BYU to 35 percent shoot-
ing to win their 17th straight confer-
ence tournament game.
The dominant title performance
should boost Gonzaga’s chances for
a high NCAA Tournament seed and
HOMETOWN REPORT
Gonzaga
women beat
San Diego
for West
Coast title
Blazers win
8th straight
with 111-87
win over
the Knicks
Associated Press
By ANNE M. PETERSON
Associated Press
LAS VEGAS — Gonzaga
went into the season with plenty
of question marks, with new play-
ers on the roster and returning
players filling new roles.
The regular season ended
just the way it did a year ago:
with a West Coast Conference
championship.
Jill Barta scored 32 points and
hit six free throws in the final 43
seconds, helping Gonzaga beat
San Diego 79-71 on Tuesday
to repeat as WCC tournament
champions.
“We just worked out to our
goals and we had people step up
all year long,” Gonzaga coach
Lisa Portier said.
With hot teams,
Davis, Lillard
hot names in
MVP discussion
By BRIAN MAHONEY
Associated Press
With the Houston Rockets
on top of the NBA and James
Harden on top of the scoring
race, he may be running away
with the MVP vote.
Anthony Davis and Damian
Lillard might have something to
say about that.
With stellar play steering their
sizzling teams, they have at least
entered their names in the con-
versation with a little more than a
month left in the regular season.
Harden has been runner-up to
Stephen Curry and Russell West-
brook in recent years, but it’s
looked like his time this season.
With more than 31 points and
nearly nine assists per game —
third in the league in that category
— for a team with the league’s
best record, it’s hard to imagine
needing to look elsewhere.
“What Harden and Houston
is doing right now, he’s the MVP
of the league right now,” Hall
of Famer Isiah Thomas said on
NBA TV.
Lillard and Davis could
deserve some thought.
Lillard is building a good
resume for this week’s honor.
He’s scored 39 and 37 in two
games thus far, with 19 in the
fourth quarter Monday to rally
Portland past the Lakers, and
eight 3-pointers Tuesday in a
rout of the Knicks. That gave
the league leader in second-half
scoring 35 or more in seven of
the last 10 games.
Most importantly — for their
teams and their candidacies —
their clubs are rolling. New Orle-
ans has won nine straight and
Portland has won eight in a row.
Davis has carried New Orle-
ans with dominant basket-
ball since DeMarcus Cous-
ins was lost for the season last
month.
possibly a go-out-on-top end to the
Zags’ dominance in the WCC —
Gonzaga is in talks to join the Moun-
tain West Conference, possibly next
season.
“Tonight, they were a handful for
us,” BYU coach Dave Rose said.
“It’s tough when things get that lop-
sided. It’s really tough when they get
it going like that.”
Yoeli Childs had 20 points to cap a
stellar tournament for BYU.
BYU seemed worn out in its third
game in four days, unable to keep up
with the flying Bulldogs.
If this is Gonzaga’s final WCC
tournament appearance, it went out
with a flourish.
Jeff Ter Har/For The Daily Astorian
Maddi Utti, right, looks to pass for the Bulldogs in a game at San Diego State earlier this season.
Utti makes conference
all-freshmen team
By GARY HENLEY
The Daily Astorian
S
easide High School gradu-
ate Maddi Utti was honored
this week for her outstand-
ing freshman year of basketball at
Fresno State University.
Utti and teammate Aly Gamez
were named to the Mountain West
Conference all-freshmen team,
in conference awards announced
Monday.
Fresno State’s Candice White
was selected to the All-Mountain
West team, making the Bulldogs
the only team in the MWC to have
three players honored in the post-
season awards.
Utti started 25 straight games,
led all MWC freshmen in field-
goal percentage, and ranked third
overall in the league at 56.4 per-
cent. At only 5-foot-10, the under-
sized post player and former point
guard with the Gulls led all fresh-
men in rebounding at 5.7 per
game.
Utti also ranked third among
freshmen in minutes (32.4) per
game and fourth in scoring (9.8).
For Fresno State, she ranks first
in field-goal percentage, sec-
ond in rebounds and blocks, and
third in steals and assists. She has
posted 10 double-figure perfor-
mances in league play, and two
double-doubles.
Astoria grad
gets win for WSU
Astoria’s
Nick
Strange
recently earned his first vic-
tory as a member of the Wash-
Warner Pacific
From left to right, Warner Pacific players Katlyn James, Mady Han-
na and Michaela Pin were recently honored before the team’s Se-
nior Night.
two-out, run-scoring single to left
field in the top of the ninth by Jus-
tin Harrer, a graduate of Sisters
High School.
Strange made his WSU debut
Feb. 18 in Tempe, Arizona, in
a non-conference game against
Nebraska.
He pitched two scoreless
innings out of the bullpen, in a 5-3
loss to the Cornhuskers.
Hanna finishes career
Washington State University
Nick Strange
ington State baseball team.
A junior on the Cougars’ pitch-
ing staff, Strange came on in relief
in a non-conference game Feb. 20
against Grand Canyon in Phoenix,
Arizona. He pitched one and two-
thirds scoreless innings, including
a 1-2-3 ninth to pick up the win.
Washington State won 5-4 on a
The college basketball career
of Warrenton’s Mady Hanna offi-
cially came to a close last month,
as the season ended for War-
ner-Pacific with a loss at South-
ern Oregon in the Cascade Con-
ference tournament.
Hanna appeared in every game
for the Knights, starting 16 and
averaging 18.4 minutes per con-
test. She was second on the team
this season with 83 assists.
PORTLAND — Knicks coach
Jeff Hornacek said it may be time
to get Damian Lillard into the Most
Valuable Player conversation.
“The guy is playing fantastic.
He might be one of those guys
you’ve got to start talking about
that MVP too with the way he’s
playing,” New York’s coach said
after Lillard scored 37 points in a
111-87 victory over the Knicks on
Tuesday night.
Lillard made eight 3-point-
ers, one off his career high, in the
Blazers’ eighth straight win.
CJ McCollum added 19 points
for the Blazers, on their lon-
gest winning streak since win-
ning nine in a row in 2014. They
have moved into third place in the
Western Conference standings.
Even the fans have lofty
expectations for Lillard, chanting
“MVP! MVP!” at times when he
got to the line.
“I said after I won Rookie of the
Year, I said I think I can be MVP
in this league,” he said. “Being
in the discussion, it’s an honor to
be mentioned, but I don’t look at
that and think ‘Oh they mentioned
me in the MVP discussion.’ I feel
that’s the level of player I can be.”
Lillard added that he believes
this has been his best season. He’s
averaging 26.8 points, but he’s
been particularly effective over
the streak.
The Blazers hit a season-high
20 3-pointers in 33 attempts (60
percent).
Enes Kanter had 18 points
and 11 rebounds for the Knicks,
who lost their fifth straight. It
was Kanter’s 32nd double-dou-
ble this season, a career high. Tim
Hardaway Jr. finished with 19
points.
New York has won just one
of its last 14 games. The Knicks
trailed by as many as 22 points.
The game in Portland was the
third of a four-game road trip for
the Knicks and comes off a 102-
99 loss to the Kings on Sunday.
Sacramento’s Skal Labissiere had
a 3-pointer with 1.6 seconds left to
win it.
The Knicks lost top scorer Kri-
staps Porzingis last month to a
season-ending ACL tear injury
that required surgery, and they’ve
since gone 1-8.
UP NEXT: BLAZERS
• Golden State Warriors (50-14)
at Portland Trail Blazers (39-26)
• Friday, 7 p.m. TV: NSNW
SCOREBOARD
PREP SPORTS SCHEDULE
THURSDAY
Boys basketball — OSAA Class 4A
state tournament quarterfinals (at For-
est Grove High School):
Sisters vs. Banks, 1:30 p.m.
Valley Catholic vs. La Grande, 3:15
p.m.
Newport vs. Marshfield, 6:30 p.m.
Mazama vs. Seaside, 8:15 p.m.