By Ryan Mink
rmink@digitalsports.com
It was the start of overtime and Gonzaga had just narrowly escaped regulation still wearing last year’s WCAC crown.
And on the end line, getting ready to inbound the ball was Tyler Thornton, joking and smiling.
It seems that for the Duke-bound junior guard, nothing can get him rattled. And thus was the case Saturday afternoon, when Thornton’s cool 26 points led Gonzaga to a 73-68 overtime win over St. John’s in the WCAC quarterfinals.
“The playoffs in the WCAC, you can’t for anything better than an overtime game with your biggest rival,” Thornton said. “I was happy, ready to get the game going in overtime and I knew we were going to pull it out.”
Second-seeded Gonzaga (25-4) trailed the seventh-seeded Cadets (13-17) – whom they had beaten three times already this season — by nine points more than midway through the third quarter.
That’s when Thornton turned it on, notching and and-one conversion, then another bucket before the end of the quarter. He had eight of Gonzaga’s 12 points in the quarter.
“He’s our leader,” Gonzaga coach Steve Turner said. “He stayed focused tonight and made big plays when we needed them most.”
St. John’s maintained a steady lead for most of the fourth quarter and led by one point with 32.3 seconds after a free throw by Erik Koebke, who was subbed in for the first time all game for injured Denzel Primus-Devonish just for the free throw.
Thornton took the ball on the next possession and drove down the court to draw the foul with 26.6 seconds remaining. He sunk one of two free throws, but Primus-Devonish missed a three-point attempt to win the game, sending it into overtime.
“I knew we had the momentum, I knew they were on the down a little bit,” Thornton said. “It was time for us to attack.”
Thornton converted a lob pass from Ian Hummer for an and-one just 11 seconds into overtime, giving the Eagles even more of a boost. But St. John’s responded with a deep three pointer from Chris Martin.
Next was what Thornton called the biggest shot of the game. With about three minutes left, the ball came out to Gonzaga sophomore Cahli Thomas, who wasn’t even guarded most of the game and who was very reticent to shoot from behind the arch despite that.
Thomas, despite hitting huge game-tying or game-winning shots in games against Good Counsel and O’Connell this year, has had a self-admitted mental block.
But this time, Thomas caught the ball and shot in stride. It swished through the net, giving Gonzaga a lead that it would never surrender.
“I just wanted to step up for my team again; I’m used to it now,” Thomas said. “That shot I was actually kind of nervous, but you still have to step up and take it.”
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