St. Mary’s, BYU meet in WCC finals

Saint Mary’s (25-7, 12-5) vs. No. 2 seed Brigham Young (24-7, 13-3)

West Coast Conference Tourney Championship, Orleans Arena, Las Vegas; Monday, 10:30 p.m. EDT

BOTTOM LINE: Saint Mary’s and Brigham Young are set to do battle in the Championship of the WCC tournament. The teams split the regular season series at one win apiece. The teams last played on Feb. 1, when the Cougars shot 57.9 percent from the field while holding Saint Mary’s’s shooters to just 53.6 percent on their way to a two-point victory.

SUPER SENIORS: Saint Mary’s has relied heavily on its seniors. Jordan Ford, Malik Fitts, Tanner Krebs, Tommy Kuhse and Dan Fotu have collectively accounted for 78 percent of the team’s scoring this year and 110 percent of all Gaels points over the last five games.

FACILITATING THE OFFENSE: Ford has made or assisted on 53 percent of all Saint Mary’s field goals over the last three games. Ford has accounted for 41 field goals and eight assists in those games.

UNDEFEATED WHEN: Saint Mary’s is a perfect 18-0 when its defense holds opponents to a field goal percentage of 44.8 percent or less. The Gaels are 7-7 when allowing opponents to shoot any better than that.

ASSIST DISTRIBUTION: The Cougars have recently created buckets via assists more often than the Gaels. Brigham Young has 54 assists on 97 field goals (55.7 percent) over its previous three games while Saint Mary’s has assists on 28 of 93 field goals (30.1 percent) during its past three games.

DID YOU KNOW: The Brigham Young offense has recorded a turnover on only 15.5 percent of its possessions, which is the 13th-best rate in the country. The Saint Mary’s defense has forced opposing teams to turn the ball over on just 17.8 percent of all possessions (ranked 263rd among Division I teams).