SPOKANE, Wash. — The West Coast Conference may very well place three teams in the NCAA Tournament this season.

For the second time in less than three weeks, the University of San Francisco men's basketball team nearly toppled the best of them.

After playing a perfect first half, holding No. 2 Gonzaga to its fewest points in a half this season, the Dons couldn't hold on in the face of a second-half Bulldogs' onslaught. Despite a heroic 22-point effort from Charles Minlend and a stifling defensive performance, the Dons fell 71-54.

USF (17-11, 6-7 in WCC) held Gonzaga — the highest-scoring team in Division I — to 17 points below their season average, with the Bulldogs scoring just 22 points in the first half. The only other team to hold Gonzaga to 25 points or below in a half was Michigan — so far the only team to down the Bulldogs this season.

The Dons crashed the boards on both sides of the floor, pulling down eight offensive rebounds in the first 20 minutes (for nine second-chance points), led by five from freshman Josh Kunen, who hit the floor hard midway through the first half chasing an offensive rebound against Player of the Year candidate Killian Tillie.  

USF got up by as many as nine points despite shooting just 13-of-39. The Dons got ahead by going 5-of-12 from beyond the arc, forcing eight turnovers and racking up six steals and three blocks. USF clogged the paint and went early and often to the perimeter, with Khalil Shabazz (13 points) and Minlend combining to go 9-for-19 from the field and 5-of-8 from beyond the arc.

"That was not us," said Bulldogs head coach Mark Few. "We were doing things I'd never seen in practice … It was a lot like last time in San Francisco."

On Feb. 1 at War Memorial Gym, the Dons led by double digits in the first half and held Gonzaga (27-1, 12-0) to just 35 points before the break. The Bulldogs, though, stormed back after halftime and shot 57.69% out of the locker room.

On Thursday, Gonzaga ripped off a 24-2 run to open the second half, as Tillie — who held a plus-minus rating of minus-3 in the first half — went 5-of-5 for 12 of his 22 points in the first 10 minutes out of the locker room.

Meanwhile, USF turned the ball over seven times and went 1-for-12 from the field over the first 9:21 out of the break. Jimbo Lull, though, kept pace down low, piling up 10 of his 14 rebounds in the second half after being limited early by foul trouble.

The Dons managed to trim a 13-point lead back down to seven with 3:30 to go with a step-back jumper by Jamaree Bouyea. USF tried to press, and got its hands in the Bulldogs' faces, but it wasn't enough. Tillie drove the lane for his final field goal of the night to keep it from becoming a two-possession game with 3:19 to go, and the Dons never got closer than nine again.