Gonzaga Survives Three-Point Barrage From San Francisco, Escapes with 68-66 Win
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Gonzaga Bulldogs guard Mario Saint-Supery (17) shoots the ball against San Francisco Dons forward Guillermo Diaz Graham (25) in the second half at McCarthey Athletic Center. Gonzaga Bulldogs won 68-66. Mandatory Credit: James Snook-Imagn Images [/caption]
SPOKANE, Wash. – After No. 8 Gonzaga (21-1, 9-0) kept San Francisco (13-9, 5-4) scoreless until the 12:40 mark in the first half, it seemed this contest would unfold like the previous 33 games between the programs, with GU dominating.
But the most recent installment of this one-sided historical matchup turned out to be a close call for the Bulldogs, as they pulled out a narrow 68-66 win on their home floor for a 14th straight victory against a pesky Dons squad.
The Zags got out to a fast start early, scoring the game’s first 12 points and forcing the Dons to wait until after the first media timeout and a timeout of their own to see one of their shots see the bottom of the net. But USF’s first bucket, a wide-open corner three from Tyrone Riley IV, set the tone for what was Gonzaga’s main bugaboo on the night, defending the perimeter shot. Shooting 14-of-28 from deep, the Dons never allowed GU to distance themselves, although they were fairly pristine in a lot of other areas.
Whenever USF attempted to penetrate the Bulldogs’ defense, it was to no avail, as even without the team’s regular star-studded frontcourt of Braden Huff and Graham Ike, the Zags’ length on the defensive end continues to deter opponents from taking the ball inside. In turn, a perhaps overeager Bulldogs defense took too many gambles when defending the perimeter.
“They were struggling to score twos against us, so they were on threes. And we just time and time again, overhelped and overhelped poorly,” head coach Mark Few explained.
In this game specifically, many tries by the Dons to dribble away from the defense were denied, with Gonzaga racking up 11 steals. On the other end, GU knew exactly how to attack, scoring 24 of its 27 buckets inside the arc, while not turning the ball over once in the first half. The main catalysts for this movement were three of their 6-7 guards, Jalen Warley, Tyon Grant-Foster, and Davis Fogle, who all had brilliant sequences of their own throughout the contest.
Warley led the pack with 19 points on an efficient 7-of-10 shooting with four rebounds, playing the small-ball five for most of the night. He played 38 minutes as well, with the next closest Zag logging 32. On the final play, the Bulldogs defended the after-timeout play well for most of the possession, before a quick pick-and-pop set up a presumably open Barry Wang to take a go-ahead three. But Warley recovered well from the action and managed to contest the shot, which bounced off the backboard and the rim to seal the win for Gonzaga.
The senior guard has been extremely consistent all season and has stepped up more offensively in the absence of the aforementioned bigs.
“He’s just phenomenal, inspiring, just epitome of toughness and giving this team, you know, this program, this town, everything, all he's got, and just awesome to witness firsthand,” Few said.
Grant-Foster added, “38 minutes, he was effective on 38 of those minutes. You know, I love playing with Jalen…The way he's able to affect the game on the offensive end, the way people play him, I don't think Jalen shot one three all year. But it's like, you can't stop him regardless, you know. So it's just like, the way that he's able to adapt and really conform his game to help us, it's crazy, like, he does so much stuff.”
Grant-Foster had 15 points of his own, the same amount as Fogle, with the former scoring eight consecutive points at one point in the first half. Fogle continues to impress, bringing the same confidence he flashed in garbage time earlier this season. Ismaila Diagne started at center for the third straight game, but Fogle replaced the 7-0 big coming out of halftime, with the Zags playing a full small lineup for the remainder of the game. The true freshman did have a couple of rough plays, including taking a layup that he missed with 20 seconds to go in the shot clock late in the contest, but his contributions were much needed for a GU offense that struggled to create outside of its versatile wings.
Where the Bulldogs really struggled were field goals that they needed shooting form for, posting a rough night from beyond the arc and the free-throw line. Neither of the team’s accustomed sharpshooters, Adam Miller or Steele Venters, got in the scoring column as Gonzaga shot 3-of-18 from distance. To boot, the Zags also split their shots at the charity stripe (11-for-22).
Continued high efficiency with three-point shooting by USF in the second half paired with four turnovers in a two-minute stretch allowed the Dons to storm back into the game. Later, when Grant-Foster drilled a possible dagger three from the corner to put Gonzaga up 10 with just under two minutes to go, USF drained three shots from downtown in 40 seconds to leave everyone in the McCarthey Athletic Center holding their breath. Too close for comfort was the sentiment at the end, but getting that last much-needed stop was important in its own way.
“I don’t know if we closed it out great, we survived. But you know what? We survived on the defensive end, which we were doing all night. Started the game with just a phenomenal stretch of defense, and then we kept tapping into that throughout this whole game,” Few said. “Then came down to, we needed one stop, and we got it, and that was the difference. But, yeah, we didn't finish the game ideally the way we wanted.”
GU now has a week off before its first date of the season with rival Saint Mary’s next Saturday, January 31, at 7:30 PM PT in the Kennel. Ike could potentially make his return to the court then, as after wearing a boot on his right foot during the team’s two previous games, he was without it for this one.
