2008 ncca tournament bracket
2008 ncca tournament schedule
NCAA tournament bracket
The University of San Diego can steal an NCAA Tournament berth away from another bubble team on Monday night with an upset of No. 22 Gonzaga in the West Coast Conference final.
The third-seeded Toreros advanced to the championship game after rallying from a 17-point deficit to stun the No. 2 seed Saint Mary's Gaels 75-69 in double overtime on Sunday.
Junior guard Brandon Johnson carried USD, playing all 50 minutes and scoring 28 points, pulling down eight rebounds and making two steals.
"You've got to seize the moment," said Johnson, who is averaging 22.8 points during San Diego's four-game winning streak, increasing his team-high season average to 17.2. "You've just got to find your legs.... Kids dream of playing in that situation."
It helped San Diego's cause that St. Mary's made just one field goal in the final 11 minutes of regulation.
"We choked," guard Tron Smith said (the Gaels are likely to still get an NCAA bid, however). "That's all I can say. We let ourselves down."
Johnson was impressive against Gonzaga on Jan. 19, making 10 of 19 shots for 26 points in an 80-70 loss. However, he was not nearly as effective a month later, going 2-for-15 for eight points in a 59-55 setback.
San Diego (20-13) captured the championship of this event for the first and only time in 2003, beating Gonzaga, and is 19-19 all-time at the tournament.
Top-seeded Gonzaga is 22-1 against San Diego since Feb. 17, 2000. Its only loss to the Toreros, though, was that WCC tournament final on March 10, 2003. Since then, Gonzaga has reeled off 13 wins in a row, including victories in both meetings this season.Gonzaga also hasn't dropped a league tournament game since then, winning all nine with two coming against San Diego.
But Gonzaga struggled to a 52-48 win over a mediocre Santa Clara team on Sunday, the same team Gonzaga had beaten by 34 six days earlier.
"It was a hardened March tournament game and we had to dig down deep to find a way to win," Gonzaga coach Mark Few said.
Josh Heytvelt was the only Gonzaga player scoring in double figures, with 15. On a night when the Zags shot poorly (42.1 percent) and at times ill-advisedly (20 of their 38 shots were 3-pointers), Heytvelt was 4-of-5 from the field and 5-of-6 from the line.
WCC Player of the Year Jeremy Pargo of Gonzaga was held to just four points and two assists on 1-of-3 shooting.
The victory clinched Gonzaga's 11th consecutive trip to the championship game, in which the team is 8-2.
Heytvelt scored seven points and grabbed six rebounds in 13 minutes of that 59-55 win at San Diego on Feb. 18 after scoring 15 in each of the previous two matchups as a starter.
The Zags never trailed in either game against San Diego this season.
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