LAS VEGAS — With three BYU assistant coaches looking on late Saturday night at Orleans Arena, Saint Mary’s guard Jordan Ford poured in a career-high 42 points, including a memorable, twisting, off-balanced 30-foot 3-point heave with 25 seconds remaining, as the Gaels outlasted Pepperdine in double overtime.
As Ford attempted the shot, he was trying to draw a foul. Nothing was called — but he made it anyway.
“It’s win or go home. We’ve prepared ourselves every day for this. We’ve taken every game seriously, like it’s the most important game of the year.” — BYU forward Yoeli Childs
“That’s what a special player can do,” said Saint Mary’s coach Randy Bennett.
“I just spun around and tried to get the cleanest look off I could,” said Ford, who hit 17 of 30 shots from the field, including five 3-pointers. “Lucky for us, it went in.”
With that thrilling 89-82 victory over the Waves, the No. 3 seeded Gaels advanced to the West Coast Conference Tournament semifinals, setting up another intriguing showdown and much-anticipated game with the No. 2 Cougars Monday (9:30 p.m., MST, ESPN2).
Ford played all 50 minutes of the game and impressed everyone that witnessed his performance, including BYU assistant coach Cody Fueger.
“He’s like Steph Curry, right? He makes every shot, makes every right play,” he said. “He’s a heckuva player. I mean, 42 tonight he finished with? Unbelievable player. It was an incredible college basketball game. We’re looking forward to playing Saint Mary’s on Monday.”
No. 15 BYU and Saint Mary’s have played twice this season, with the Gaels winning 87-84 in overtime in Moraga on Jan. 9 and the Cougars coming out on top in Provo 81-79 on Feb. 1. TJ Haws buried a 3-pointer with nine seconds remaining at the Marriott Center, where Gael forward Malik Fitts scored 29 points before fouling out.
“The game at our place where TJ hit the game-winner was one of the best college basketball games I’ve ever been a part of,” Fueger said. “I think (Monday’s game is) going to be something similar.”
BYU’s Yoeli Childs didn’t play in the first meeting due to a finger injury. Gael guard Tanner Krebs didn’t play in the second game due to an injury. Both will play Monday.
Saint Mary’s, the defending WCC Tournament champions, knocked off top-seeded Gonzaga in the title game a year ago.
“We came here to try to win the tournament. We won this thing last year and we 100 percent came here to win it again. It’s hard to do,” Bennett said. “We had to go through Pepperdine, we’re going to have to go through BYU and if you get that done, you have to go through Gonzaga probably. All of those games are tough. Our league is really good this year. There are really good players in it. It will be tough to win it. We’ll get a crack at it Monday.”
Ford’s effort overshadowed Pepperdine guard Colbey Ross, who scored a career-high 43 points Saturday and almost helped the Waves pull off an upset.
“I was just thinking that we have to play against another really good guard on Monday. Haws is a really good player,” Bennett said. “Obviously, Childs is, too. There have been some battles. We know it will be a tough game. That’s what we want.”
At stake is not only the right to advance to Tuesday’s WCC championship game, but also NCAA Tournament seeding. Both the Cougars, who have won nine consecutive games, and the Gaels, are projected to be in the Big Dance, regardless of what happens Monday and Tuesday. But how they play could impact their NCAA Tournament location and seeding.
“It’s win or go home. We’ve prepared ourselves every day for this. We’ve taken every game seriously, like it’s the most important game of the year,” Childs said earlier this week. “That mindset is going to help us going into this because you can’t just flip a switch, no matter how talented you are. We’ve prepared for this moment all year. We’re just focused on winning. This conference is competitive. It’s been a long time since BYU has won a conference tournament. So we want to go do something special.”
The Cougars want to redeem themselves from last year’s embarrassing 80-57 loss to San Diego in the WCC Tournament quarterfinals. BYU trailed by as many as 44 points in the second half.
“It was totally frustrating. It seems like everything fell apart,” Childs recalled. “Everything that could have gone wrong did. We allowed San Diego to start firing on all cylinders. You have to give them credit. They played a great game. But we’re all very optimistic guys. We all believe. If we’re talking about the law of averages here, we’re due for a big game (at Orleans Arena).”
The Cougars have played only once over the past two weeks — an 81-64 win at Pepperdine on Feb. 29. Fueger said BYU has handled the long layoff well.
“We had a great practice (Saturday). The guys are hungry,” he said. “They’re ready to face somebody else and they’re ready to play a game.”
The Cougars, of course, won’t practice Sunday due to school policy.
“We’ve had a couple of Saint Mary’s things in all of our practices that we’ve done throughout the week so our guys will be ready to go,” Fueger said. “They’ll watch a ton of film. We’ll take (Sunday) off and have a little shoot-around Monday.”
The schedule is similar to the one BYU went through back in November at the Maui Invitational, where the Cougars didn’t practice Sunday ahead of a match-up against UCLA. BYU beat the Bruins 78-63 in a late Monday night game.
“Our guys have gone through this situation and know the feel of it,” Fueger said. “Our guys are really familiar with Saint Mary’s and they know exactly what they do. They’ve been talking about it all week long. They’ve been hoping for Saint Mary’s and they’ll be ready to go.”
Saint Mary’s, and especially Ford, expended a lot of energy Saturday night. But the Gaels will have tournament momentum when they take on BYU.
“It should be a dogfight,” Ford said. “I think both teams will be ready for it.”
Cougars on the air
No. 15 BYU (24-7) vs. Saint Mary’s (25-7)
Monday, 9:30 p.m. MT
Orleans Arena, Las Vegas
TV: ESPN2
Radio: 1160 AM, BYU Radio