Huckleberries Online

Gonzaga 74, WSU 69

Posted by DFO

Dec. 2, 2009 6:56 p.m. • 17 comments

ESPN boxscore here.

Gonzaga stormed back in the second half behind the play of senior Matt Bouldin and freshman Elias Harris to defeat Washington State 74-69 before 6,000 at the McCarthey Athletic Center. By overcoming a 15-point first-half lead, 17th-ranked GU (7-1) kept the Cougars (6-1) from becoming the first visiting team to win twice at McCarthey. Though it was Bouldin (28 points) and Harris (24) doing it on the offensive end, it was Steven Gray and Mangisto Arop who made the biggest difference, combining to hold Klay Thompson, the nation’s leading scorer at 28.3 coming in, to 15 points on 6 of 21 shooting. More Sportslink coverage by Jim Meehan here.

17 comments on this post so far. Add yours!

spokelooneh on December 02 at 7:56 p.m.
GU ahead by a point. 62-61 4? minutes left.

Tied at 63, 3:40? to go.

“Harrison having a great night.” That HAD to happen for GU to have a chance.
spokelooneh on December 02 at 8:12 p.m.
Rallied back from a 15 pt. deficit to win 74-69. That’s scrappy, congrats Bulldogs.
TLPoelstra on December 02 at 8:29 p.m.
Awesome game. I am sicker than a dog, laying in bed but this game made pop up and cheer more than once.
BrandonHansen on December 02 at 9:35 p.m.
Wow, entertaining for Coug and Zag fans alike. I think this shows that the Cougs will be a force in the Pac-10 this year.

Brandon Hansen
Just South of North
http://www.justsouthofnorth.com
JIMMYMAC on December 02 at 10:07 p.m.
Was in the stands tonight. Many of the Zags did not show up tonight. A few showed up half way through. One Zag played his heart out all game…Elias Harris.
spokelooneh on December 02 at 10:12 p.m.
Told ya, Harris HAD to have a good game.

Big props to the D for holding that point monster Thompson to 15 pts.

JimmyMac, was Harris effective in guarding Thompson? Neither team is very tall, compared to Harris and Thompson.
JIMMYMAC on December 02 at 10:24 p.m.
Spoke,
Steven Gray actually did most of the guarding of Harris in first half. Did a great job, holding him to I think 6 pts. Gray had too many turnovers in the first half and spent a fair amount of time on the pine the second half. Few put in a genuis like rotation with about 12 minutes left that mysteriously clawed back and got them over the hump: Harris, Olynyk, Bouldin, Arop and Gibbs-whodathunk?
Thompson went 6 for 21 overall. I didn’t think his FG % was that bad until I listened to the post game radio show on the way back to CDA. Tale of two halves: GU outrebounded by 11 in first half (from what I remember) and turned it around to outrebound WSU by 10 in second half. Harris has the drive and confidence of a leader-he was the sole aggressor for GU in the first half. Bouldin’s treys kept them in it and he, Harris and Olynyk turned in a dynamic 2nd half.
I am still on cloud nine. K2 was JUMPIN, literally. WSU is no slouch, can’t wait to watch them play UW at Friel Court.
JIMMYMAC on December 02 at 10:24 p.m.
Arop did most of the defending of Arop in 2nd BTW.
CdaMomof4 on December 02 at 10:31 p.m.
JimmyMac: “Arop did most of the defending of Arop in 2nd BTW.”

That would have been interesting to see. ;-)

Great game by Harris though!! Hard to believe he’s a freshman.
JIMMYMAC on December 02 at 10:45 p.m.
I CANNOT say enough about Harris. There are some serious freshman that deserve the hype they are getting right now e.g. John Wall, Lance Stevenson, John Henson. Right now I don’t know if I’d trade any of them for Elias Harris, at least not for this team. Austin who???
JIMMYMAC on December 02 at 11:20 p.m.
Last post on this I swear…at least for tonight. Gray was a beast defending Klay. You could honestly say he was the X factor with the score being so tight and keeping uber stud Thompson in check. Kudos to Steven!
mia on December 03 at 12:11 a.m.
Awesome commentary Jimmy- thank you! We watched the game from a bar/restaurant in Moscow. We were in disbelief the first half or so, but knew they could, and thankfully they did come back and win! We were in” Coug” territory, so we did not antagonize by openly Whooping! (Yes, Moscow, not Pullman, but it’s relative.)
Honestly, we could have walked away happy, either way. But Go Zags!
JIMMYMAC on December 03 at 1:32 a.m.
meant Arop did most of the defending of Thompson in 2nd half. Time for beddy by.
wheels on December 03 at 7:41 a.m.
Awsome BBall game.WSU also has a very good team.They could contend in the Pac 10.Go Zags.
BethB on December 03 at 7:49 a.m.
I can’t believe I stopped watching after the first half! I always root for WSU, except when they play the Zags…
JohnA on December 03 at 9:16 a.m.
Imagine four freshman and Bouldin playing the bulk of the minutes in the stirring second half. Of course, when one of those ‘freshman’ is a 20-year-old kid with international experience, it was enough to bring ‘em all the way back. And, you can’t say enough about Bouldin, whose probably getting some looks now from NBA scouts.

I was disappointed to see Sacre continue to have foul trouble, often from silly reach-ins or when he’s beaten to the basket. I hope he can learn how to stay in the game because he’s an NBA-level talent when he’s on the court.

Finally, it’s good to see such a dramatic departure from the soft players of the past (Morrison and Heytveldt come to mind) replaced by a young and hard-fighting squad. Go Zags!
JIMMYMAC on December 03 at 10:15 a.m.
JohnA,
Bouldin has been tagged as potential early to mid second rounder according to the talking heads lately.

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D.F. Oliveria is a columnist and blogger for The Spokesman-Review. Huckleberries Online was judged the best 2008 Idaho newspaper blog by the Idaho Press Club. And the best 2007 news blog in the Pacific Northwest by the Society for Professional Journalist. Print Huckleberries is a past winner of the Herb Caen Memorial Column contest by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. The Readership Institute of Northwestern University cited this blog as a good example of online community journalism.