Sitting on the runway in Denver, waiting to finish the last leg of the trip home. I was able to get some work done on the first flight, so here's the day after post following Gonzaga's 66-63 win over Marquette, which was picked to finish in a tie for No. 8 in the Big East Conference. As it turned out, the Golden Eagles gave No. 1 Duke a tougher battle than No. 4 Kansas State did in Tuesday's title game.

Here are links to S-R game story, Kansas City Star gamer  and K.C. Star photos. Find K.C. Star articles on Duke-Kansas State here and here.

Read on for more.

--The Zags didn’t exactly deliver a knockout punch last night. They led by nine at half and the margin stayed between five and 11 until the last two minutes. That’s when Marquette hit its first 3-pointer since the 8:23 mark of the first half. The Golden Eagles had a couple of 3-point attempts to tie it, but misfired on both.

While GU would have been happy to cruise to a double-digit victory, it had no reservations about snagging a hard-earned and much-needed win. A loss would have given GU three setbacks in a row, which hasn’t happened since Dec.20-31, 2008, when they lost to UConn (Battle in Seattle), Portland State and Utah.

“I think they got up into us and ratcheted up their pressure,” coach Mark Few said of Marquette’s late rally. “We missed several bunnies right around the basket and we had a couple of turnovers we have to clean up, but Marquette is a very opportunistic team. We got the ball right where we wanted it to go, we got it to Elias (Harris) one time and they stripped it and went down and got an and-one.”

GU held on with Steven Gray hitting 3 of 4 foul shots in the final minute.

“We were desperate today,” junior guard Demetri Goodson said. “We could have come in feeling sorry for ourselves, but me, Rob (Sacre) and Steve got the guys together and we came out and played hard. Marquette is a great team, they’ve got a great coach and we knew they weren’t going to give in, by watching that game against Duke (Monday). I think Duke had them 17 down and they came back and tied it up. We knew we had to play hard and try to finish the game out as best we could.”

--The rebounding numbers were huge. Gonzaga won the glass 44-28, with 17 offensive rebounds leading to 21 second-chance points. Second-chance points became Gonzaga’s offense in the second half (17 of 24 points). On one play, Gonzaga had five cracks at the basket before Harris made a tip-in.

Contrary to the last couple games, where GU was hammered on the boards, the Zags won the majority of the 50-50 balls, “Which hasn’t been happening,” Few said. “We’ve lost 95 percent of those to San Diego State and Kansas State. It goes back to what I referred to earlier about character, being tough enough to draw a line in the sand and go get them. Marquette has quick jumpers, they’re quick-handed and very opportunistic. They were plus-11 (rebounding) going into the game.”

The 6-foot Goodson chased down nine rebounds, nearly doubling his previous career best (five on two occasions, the last vs. Florida State in the NCAA Tournament). Harris had eight rebounds, Sacre seven, Gray six and Arop four.

“It’s definitely the first time that’s ever happened,” Goodson said of his nine boards. “I had my (Rajon) Rondo on today. The coaches told me right before the game, ‘Get in there and grab some rebounds,’ but I didn’t expect to get nine.”

--Harris’ importance to GU’s offense is fairly obvious. When he was struggling to score the last three games, it put additional pressure on Gray, who carried the scoring burden, and Sacre, who had been in double figures in every game until being held to five against Marquette, zero in the first half. And keep in mind that Sacre was already averaging a career-best 13 points per game entering Tuesday’s contest.

Harris struck for 19 points, making 8 of 19 shots.

“He showed right from the start what kind of mind-set he was in and when he’s going like that you have to go to him and go to him the whole game,” Gray said. “If he’s not playing the way he played tonight, that’s just not our team.”

Harris, bothered by shoulder and Achilles injuries through the first month of the season, said he felt “more pumped, more adrenaline” for Tuesday’s game.

“I just needed to make myself available, catch the ball and be aggressive and take it to their chin,” Harris said. “I wasn’t thinking about my injury. Right now I feel it, but during the game I was thinking, ‘Let’s win this game.’ ”

--As big as Harris was, so was Arop, who scored a career-high 15 points. Like Harris, Arop had been struggling in recent games.

“The last few games have been real frustrating,” Arop said. “Coach (Few) has been asking me to step up my game and telling me this team needs me. I guess I wasn’t able to get myself going and nothing was really going well on the court. Personally it was good for me to have a good game, get my confidence up and get a little more confidence from the coaches.”

Arop showed initiative at the offensive end, both on the boards and with a couple of drives into the paint for baskets.

“It’s similar to what I said about ‘E’ (Elias),” Few said of Arop. “It’s a great sign for us to get those guys back playing the way we want them to play and expect them to play. Hopefully, he’ll keep it going.”

--Mathis Mönninghoff started for the second straight game – and his numbers were comparable to his first start against K-State. He played 15 minutes, grabbed three rebounds and didn’t score.

STATS OF NOTE

--The teams combined to shoot 1 of 14 on 3-pointers in the second half. The percentage was even worse when one considers Marquette lost its shooting eye over the last eight minutes of the first half. GU was 0 of 7, Marquette 1 of 7 in the final 20 minutes.

--Gray has led GU in scoring in four of five games (Sacre’s 17 vs. K-State was team high) and in assists four of five games (Goodson’s four was team high vs. Marquette).

--For the third straight game, Gonzaga had more turnovers than assists (17-9). The ratio was 7-to-2 in the second half. Thirteen of GU’s turnovers were committed by forwards/posts (Sacre 5, Harris 4, Dower 1, Olynyk 2 and Mönninghoff 1). Meanwhile, Marquette’s three starting guards committed eight of the team’s 10 turnovers.

--Gray and Harris were 11 of 17 from the field in the first half, 3 of 19 in the second. Gray was 2 of 14 on FGs in the second halves against K-State and Marquette.

--If it seemed like Marquette’s Jae Crowder had a lot of steals it’s because he did (5).

--Arop made 7 of 8 shots en route to 15 points. His previous career high was nine points vs. Southern.

--Gray logged 38 minutes, Harris 37 and Goodson 36.

--GU’s previous two opponents (K-State and San Diego State) shot 51 percent from the floor. Marquette made just 38.9 percent.

QUOTES

--Arop on the significance of the win: “It was huge for us. We had lost two in a row. We dropped one at home to San Diego State, we came into Kansas State looking to respond but we were dominated in that game. We had our backs against the wall and this was a character-test game, how would we respond? I thought we responded very well as a team.

“We’ve been getting smashed on the boards lately – that was the biggest challenge the coaches had for us, man up and go get some rebounds and don’t get pushed around. We were able to respond to that against a good team.”

--Gray was asked if he has been feeling fatigued in the second halves of games (I posed the same question to him after Monday’s game) and he responded (as he did Monday night) that he has emphasized getting additional rest and taking care of his body: “My shots just weren’t dropping in the second half.”

At that point Few interjected: “His coach is playing him too many minutes.” Extended pause. “But his coach doesn’t feel comfortable when he’s not on the floor.”

--Gray on hitting the second of two free throws with 12.6 seconds left: “I just tried to step up and relax. The tendency is to miss short, to tighten up, but I missed (the first) long so the second one had to drop.”

--Few on going to a zone defense for pretty much the last 27 minutes: “The guys were more comfortable in it. We talked about it a lot in the timeouts and they wanted to say in the 2-3.”