Betting info for St. Mary's and Gonzaga final

This is what St. Mary’s has pointed to since losing star guard Patrick Mills on Jan. 29 at Gonzaga, a chance to win the West Coast Conference post-season tournament. Mills suffered a broken hand in that game after playing sensationally. The Gaels went on to lose the contest 69-62 as 10-point underdogs and put up a game effort in falling 72-70 at home without Mills. Though Mills is not 100 percent ready to go, St. Mary’s has to be energized having their leader back and wants to earn some revenge.

Though the season didn’t go as planned for Gonzaga either, they have dominated the WCC with 15-0 (8-7 ATS) record, winning by an average of 20.7 points per game. Gonzaga (25-5, 14-14 ATS) has won eight of the last 10 WCC tournament titles and is making 12th straight finals appearance. The Bulldogs have won 17 of 18, with only loss to streaking Memphis and took care of business decidedly last evening. After a tough ball game at Santa Clara 11 days ago, winning by eight as 10.5-point favorites, the Zags had their offense in high gear and raced by the Broncos 94-59. Austin Daye led the assault with career high 28 points.

It’s hard to stop us when we have our break going and we’re having fun,” said senior guard Jeremy Pargo, who had 16 points. Nevertheless, Gonzaga has had their troubles with defensive-minded teams like St. Mary’s and is 9-20 ATS versus teams allowing 64 or less points a game over the last two seasons.

St. Mary’s (25-5, 16-10 ATS) has two intentions tonight, the first is win first WCC title in 12 years or make an awfully strong impression to those that matter who will be watching this game that will pick the at-large teams. The Gaels were a virtual certainty to make the NCAA field before Mills was injured and scheduled one more game this week (they were one game below the maximum number of games played) to hopefully improve record and give Mills more playing time along with enhancing reputation.

The Gaels haven’t been in the WCC finals since 2005 and Mills believes he’s close to ready.
“It took longer than I hoped to warm up, but that’s OK, because it was a good warmup for (Monday),” said Mills, who is averaging 20.3 points in his career against the Bulldogs. “There were times when I tried to baby it a bit, but once I got in the flow, it was all right. It was stiff to start out, but it felt good to be out there, especially with the boys again.” St. Mary’s is 6-0 ATS versus teams outscoring opponents by eight or more points a game this season.

Gonzaga has won 26 of the previous 30 (17-13 ATS) matchups with St. Mary’s and Bookmaker.com have them as seven-point favorites, with a total of 137.5. The Bulldogs are just 3-9 ATS against teams with winning records, while the Gaels are 13-3 ATS revenging a close loss vs opponent of three points or less.

ESPN will have the coverage of this anticipated contest at 9 Eastern, with St. Mary’s 0-8 as neutral site underdogs.

Note - For information on tonight's other three conference title games click here.