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Provo • Say all you want about how the West Coast Conference is not the ideal league in which BYU could play.

When the Cougars and conference kingpin Gonzaga get together, fireworks always fly, and classic thrillers almost always seem to happen.

Saturday night's regular-season finale was no different as the Zags held off a furious BYU comeback in the second half and held on to win 71-68 in front of a sellout crowd of 18,987 at the Marriott Center to spoil Senior Night after the Cougars did that to them last year.

"This is as good as it gets in college basketball — this environment, this many people and that much passion," Gonzaga coach Mark Few said.

Of course, his team won.

BYU coach Dave Rose was far less enthusiastic about the outcome, and was especially angered by the ending.

The Cougars (22-9, 13-5 WCC) tried to inbound the ball under their own basket with 3.5 seconds left and trailing by two, but star guard Kyle Collinsworth was held by Zags guard Josh Perkins and Silas Melson grabbed the ball to seal the win.

"Yeah, he was held," Rose said of the fateful play. "But I guess it wasn't a foul. I guess there is a picture floating around, and you can see exactly what happened."

The Cougars, who will get the third seed in the conference tournament and will play No. 6 seed Santa Clara on Saturday, can point to that last non-call as one of the reasons they lost, or didn't have a chance to tie or win. But they can only blame themselves for not making enough plays, or shots, down the stretch. They shot 32.8 percent, while the visitors shot 47.1 percent in improving to 23-7 and 15-3.

"It is tough, obviously," said Chase Fischer, who led BYU with 18 points. "Tough mood in the locker room, and tomorrow is going to be tough. But we have everything in front of us. As you have seen in the WCC this year, with the top three teams, everybody is beating everybody a little bit."

The Cougars trailed by as many as 12 in the second half, the began a slow comeback and cut the deficit to 62-59 on a 3-pointer by Nick Emery with 5:53 remaining. Fischer's bomb with just over a minute left cut the Zags' lead to 70-68. After Nate Austin blocked a Sabonis shot with 37 seconds left, Collinsworth missed a shot and Emery had an open look a couple feet beyond the arc after Austin soared for the rebound — but it rimmed out and Zac Seljaas' tip-in attempt also rolled off.

After Sabonis missed two free throws with 11 seconds left, Emery had another good look at a 3, but it wouldn't fall.

"He got a clean look. I thought it was in. Players make plays. That's how you win," Rose said.

The Cougars caught a break after Emery's second miss when Sabonis was called for an offensive foul on the inbounds play, setting up the final fateful chance with 3.5 seconds remaining. Fischer said Sabonis "put his weight into me" and deserved the foul that disqualified him, his fifth.

"I feel for my guys," Rose said. "They fought hard and it wasn't our best game, but we battled really hard."

The Cougars were playing well the first 12 minutes of the first half, and took a 24-18 lead on an Emery jumper with 8:47 remaining.

But Collinsworth picked up his second foul moments later — his first foul came 14 seconds into the game when Wilter fell down on his own, basically — and the Cougars floundered without their star.

Trailing 26-20, Gonzaga went on an 16-1 run to take control and would not lose the lead the remainder of the game. Zag senior Kyle Dranginis was hit with a technical foul for pulling Seljaas to the ground with a minute left in the half, and Fischer scored six straight points — two on the technical free throws and four on a 3-pointer and a FT — and the Cougars got back in it, trailing just 38-34 at halftime despite shooting 30 percent (11 of 37) from the field.

Gonzaga shot 56 percent in the first half, but committed 11 turnovers.

In the second half, the Zags committed just two turnovers.

"We didn't play perfect down the stretch, but we fought, beat a really good team that was playing good," Few said. "We had to make plays down to the last one."