Last Night in College Basketball: Gonzaga Men and Women Win West Coast Titles

Men’s college basketball, women’s college basketball – there’s no shortage of college ball, every night. Don’t worry, we’re here to help you figure out what you missed but shouldn’t have. Here are all the best moments from last night in college basketball. Gonzaga men and women advance Both of Gonzaga’s men’s and women’s basketball teams were in West Coast Conference championship games on Tuesday night, and both Bulldogs came away winners. That’s notable in and of itself, but this is also the last season that Gonzaga is a member of the WCC. For Gonzaga’s men’s team, it was their 23rd conference championship, all of which have been won since 1995. For the women, it was their 11th, but the first for the program also came much later, in 2007 — 11 conference championships in a 20-season stretch is plenty impressive in its own right. Despite Gonzaga winning so regularly, it was no guarantee that the men would topple Santa Clara for that 23rd conference title. The Bulldogs have been excellent from a win-loss perspective, but far too often in conference play they have also looked far more vulnerable than they should. It only resulted in one huge upset loss, however — Saint Mary’s is another quality team, so Gonzaga losing to the Gaels was far less unexpected than the one to Portland — but the possibility for another L was always there. And the Broncos are likely March Madness-bound themselves, meaning Gonzaga wasn’t up against a pushover here. The Bulldogs played an excellent defensive game, however, allowing Santa Clara to shoot just 38% while keeping fouls to a minimum: Gonzaga committed just nine the entire game, and the Broncos scored just 7 from the stripe as a result. The Bulldogs, conversely, shot 53% and sank 10 3-pointers in 25 attempts, which made up for its poor free-throw shooting (13-for-25). Their ball movement was excellent, with Gonzaga racking up 24 assists against 8 turnovers — this passing allowed for the open looks that kept that shooting percentage high. The result? A 79-68 victory for the Bulldogs, and the WCC’s automatic bid. As for the women’s team, they faced off against Oregon State, and had similar success: the Bulldogs defeated the Beavers, 76-66. While Gonzaga didn’t shoot quite as well here, freshman forward Lauren Whittaker continues to look like a star. The 6-foot-3 New Zealander, who led the West Coast Conference in both scoring and rebounding this season while averaging a double-double, had a game-high 26 points and just missed a double-double here, too, pulling down 9 rebounds while adding 3 assists and 2 steals to the stat sheet. She did all of that in just 28 minutes, too — Whittaker had 4 fouls, so her minutes had to be managed a bit. The women’s team needed the automatic bid in a way the men’s team did not: while the WCC could have a pair of at-large bids on the men’s side, Gonzaga’s women are the top team in the conference but just 89th in Wins Above Bubble even after defeating Oregon State, comparable to Quinnipiac and Howard. Gonzaga moves to the reformed Pac-12 in the 2026-2027 academic year, which is jumping from two to nine teams — the Bulldogs will be, as they were in the West Coast Conference, the crown jewel of the Pac-12’s basketball, but that’s a consideration for next season. The Bulldogs, both the men’s and women’s variants, still have games to win now as they represent the WCC in March Madness. AJ Dybantsa sets Big 12 record Just one player had ever scored 40 points in the Big 12 tournament before, so BYU’s AJ Dybantsa isn’t the first. He is the first freshman to pull it off, however, meaning he also set a record for the most points ever scored by one in the tourney by dropping 40 on Kansas State in an opening-round matchup on Tuesday. The Cougars have struggled since senior Richie Saunders tore his ACL and cut significantly into everything the offense could do, and it’s all a problem that has leaked over into the defense, as well: needing to focus and spend so much energy on replacing Saunders’ scoring, rebounding and ball movement has left BYU with less to give defensively. And Tuesday against K-State was no exception: a 3-15 team that had to fire its coach midseason scored 91 against BYU here. The Cougars got to 105 themselves, though, powered by Dybantsa’s 40 on 15-for-21 shooting. There have been some occasions since Saunders’ injury where it was clear that Dybantsa was taking the shots he had to instead of the ones he should have, but against the Wildcats that wasn’t a problem. It wasn’t just points, though. Dybantsa also grabbed 9 rebounds, logged 6 dimes and stole the ball 3 times. He played 37 minutes, too, giving very little time for K-State to try to recover with him off the floor. It’s unclear just how far BYU can get in the Big 12 tournament, never mind March Madness, but the answer all filters through how well Dybantsa can do with the odds stacked against a shorthanded roster. Against K-State, at least, Dybantsa and the Cougars shined. Green Bay wins Horizon again For the third year in a row, Green Bay is your Horizon League women’s champion. The Phoenix took on Youngstown State, which was the second seed in the tournament and had just two fewer wins than Green Bay in conference play — the end result of this one was still in question even within the last few minutes of the game. Youngstown State had a lead late, even, as it opened the fourth quarter with a bucket to go ahead, 41-40, then added another with 7:02 left to go ahead once more, 43-42. For the next four-and-a-half minutes, though, the Penguins didn’t score at all, and Green Bay vaulted ahead for good, making it 51-43 with 2:39 to go on a layup from senior guard Kamy Peppler. Youngstown State would finally start scoring again in these last 2-plus minutes, but it was too late; Green Bay would win, 57-49. Senior center Jenna Guyer was the star for Green Bay, scoring a game-high 21 points on 7-for-11 shooting as well as 6-for-7 from the stripe, but her teammates added plenty to the mix, too: Peppler scored just 5 points but had 6 rebounds and a game-high 8 assists, and senior guard Maddy Skorupski scored 13 with 6 rebounds, 2 assists and 5 steals. In a game where defense was key, these numbers all carry more weight than in a high-scoring affair. Like with Gonzaga’s women, Green Bay — and Youngstown State — needed the automatic bid to participate in March Madness. The Penguins’ season is over, but the Phoenix have had their ticket to March punched. Colorado State wins Mountain West A huge fourth quarter secured the Mountain West championship and its automatic bid for Colorado State on Tuesday, against Air Force. Not only did the Rams score 22 points — the most they managed in any quarter of the game — but they also held the Falcons to just 10, while keeping them from scoring a field goal until just under two minutes remained in regulation. For the first 8:05 of the fourth quarter, all Air Force had to show for its effort was 3-for-4 shooting from the stripe. The Falcons missed 14 shots — and two free throws — in the fourth quarter alone, and finished the day shooting 27%. The 10 points scored in the fourth quarter was actually an improvement on the previous frame, in which Air Force mustered just 6 points. It’s not that Colorado State was an offensive juggernaut in comparison, as it shot 44% but hit a single 3-pointer all game — the Rams, at least, put together two quality quarters of shooting, with 17 points in the first and 22 in the second, with the middle being an offensive mess but everything still strong defensively. Sophomore guard Khloe Frobe just missed a double-double for Colorado State, with 9 points and 10 rebounds. Senior forward Madelyn Bragg had 15 points on 7-for-8 shooting with 5 rebounds, a steal and a block. Sophomore guard Brooke Carlson led all shooters with 17, but she shot just 4-for-15 — she hit 9 of 12 from the line to make up for that, at least, and added 4 rebounds, an assist, 2 steals and a block, as well. Pitt upsets Stanford Pitt likely just ended Stanford’s season, and not because the Cardinal’s only chance at March Madness was with the ACC’s automatic bid. Before the first-round ACC tournament matchup, Stanford’s WAB sat at 0.02, with the Cardinal ranked 49th. It was about as on the bubble as can possibly be. Now, though? After losing to the Panthers, which came into the game ranked 109th in the NCAA Evaluation Tool and in no danger of appearing in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament? Stanford’s WAB is -0.74, and it ranks 58th. That is very likely that for the Cardinal. What makes it even worse for Stanford is how close it was to advancing. With 0.7 seconds left on the clock, senior guard Damarco Minor put back his own missed shot to put Pitt ahead, 64-63. Stanford had already, seemingly successfully, come back from being behind by 8 points, following up a 23-point first half with a 40-point second. Pitt wasn’t even particularly dominant in the second half, getting outscored by 7, but Stanford simply ran out of time. Second chances were a problem throughout: the Panthers outrebounded the Cardinal, 41 to 28, with Pitt picking up 20 offensive rebounds. The last play of the game was a fluke in some ways — Minor scored 4 points total and shot 2-for-10 on the night — but also part of a larger trend where Stanford couldn’t win the battle underneath. It resulted in the Cardinal not winning at all, and now, barring a surprise move by the Selection Committee, their season is over. Pitt, meanwhile, takes on NC State on Wednesday in the second round of the ACC tournament. The 15-seed Panthers have just one road to March Madness, and it’s by winning the conference’s automatic bid. That’s a bit of a heady assignment for a team that went 5-13 in ACC play, but at the least Pitt ruined Stanford’s season by boxing out for 40 minutes. That’s something! Hofstra secures CAA title Hofstra has not been to March Madness since 2001, when it was a member of America East. Sure, the Pride won the Coastal Athletic Association conference tournament in 2020, but there was no NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament that year thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic — it’s been a long time for Hofstra, is the thing. You can reset that clock, though, as the Pride defeated Monmouth in the CAA championship game, 75-69, thanks in large part to freshman guard Preston Edmead. Edmead scored a game-high 26 points in 40 minutes, with 4 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steals to go with it. Senior center Silas Sunday, a seven-footer, helped the Pride to the rebound advantage with 12 of them — including 5 offensive boards — to go with his 8 points. What ended up being the difference in the end, though, was that Monmouth kept fouling shooters: even though Hofstra committed more fouls, the Pride shot 28 free throws and made 23 of them, 9 more than the Hawks sank. In a 6-point game, that’s as huge as what Sunday and Edmead managed. Wright State takes Horizon championship In yet another close-fought conference championship, Wright State came back against and then held off Detroit Mercy to win, 66-63. No team had a serious advantage over the other in basically any aspect of the game. Detroit Mercy shot 35%, Wright State 40%. Both had 4 treys, and the Titans sank 17 free throws to the Raiders’ 16. They were a rebound apart, nearly as close on turnovers and points scored off of them, and had largest leads of 12 and 9 points, respectively. Detroit Mercy led for 45% of the game, Wright State for 49%. It was just a back-and-forth affair where no one was up by very much or for long. The one area where one team stood out, however, was in the paint: Wright State shot slightly better overall but scored 12 more points in the paint than Detroit Mercy, 36-24, which also helped lead to two additional buckets in two fewer attempts. The Raiders won by 3 points; these little differences matter in a game that close. In a game that came down to the final possession, and a block from freshman forward Kellen Pickett — his fourth of the game. It’s the first time that Wright State has made it to March Madness since 2022, and just the fourth time this century. It has been even longer for Detroit Mercy, as it last made the tourney in 2012 and that just happens to be its only appearance there in the 2000s. So close, Titans, Siena upsets Merrimack in MAAC final Merrimack defeated Siena twice in 2025-2026, but the Saints had the Warriors figured out in the MAAC championship game. Both teams played high-quality defense throughout, with short runs of offense negated by adjustments again and again, but Merrimack just could not hit its shots nor grab enough boards for second chances to fully erase the early deficit it faced. The Warriors brought the game to within 3 points at the half, closing out the first with a 10-0 run, but then did not score another point until nearly half of the second was over. Still, the Warriors managed to bring it to within 4 points with 4 minutes left — the shots stopped falling again, however, and they still couldn’t pry rebounds away from Siena, which grabbed 50 on the night. That, more than anything, kept the Saints ahead, as Merrimack, shooting 29% overall and 10-for-31 from 3, too often took a shot it didn’t want to against a tough defense and then could not grab the rebound. A problem exacerbated by the exit of sophomore guard Tye Dorse, who injured his knee in the second half fighting for a ball going out of bounds. Just an excellent defensive effort by Siena, which is now participating in March Madness for the first time since 2010. Merrimack, meanwhile, is still searching for its first ticket to the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament after moving up from Division II in 2019 — while the Warriors won the NEC title in 2023, they were not yet eligible for March Madness due to the transition from D-II. It should be pointed out that the difference maker for Siena, if you had to pick one out, was 7-foot senior center Riley Mulvey. He averaged 17.2 minutes per game in 2025-2026, but here played all 40 and picked up a double-double with 11 points, 11 rebounds, and assist and 5 huge blocks. He was a force underneath throughout, making the life of MAAC leading scorer Kevair Kennedy more difficult from start to finish, and Siena’s defense looked that much better for his presence.