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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Broncos End Gu’s Win Streak Nash’s Second-Half 35-Point Effort Too Much For Inexperienced Zags

Dave Boling Staff Writer

It took nearly three years to construct Gonzaga’s home-court winning streak. Thirty-four wins, one on top of another, like bricks in an expanding wall.

And it took just 25 minutes by an uncanny Steve Nash of Santa Clara to topple it all.

Nash cashed in 35 of his career-high 40 points after halftime to rally the Broncos to a 73-68 overtime win over GU at the Martin Centre Thursday.

Only Indiana and Massachusetts had been able to sustain a longer string of dominance in their own domain.

But the West Coast Conferenceleading Broncos (4-0, 12-3) clawed back from a 16-point first-half deficit - keeping their wits in the frantic final minutes - to send GU (11-4) to its third WCC loss in as many outings.

“It’s a loss - really nothing more than a conference loss like the one last Saturday (at San Francisco) and the one last Thursday (at San Diego),” GU coach Dan Fitzgerald said. “It’s been nice copy (for the reporters), but not that much to us. I wouldn’t mind going 34-1 again - I’m not greedy.”

It was more than that to senior forward Jason Rubright - the only Bulldog remaining on the team to have lost at home. Adding a note of symmetry to the outcome, it was Santa Clara that last defeated GU at home, winning 61-58 on Feb. 22, 1992.

“It’s pretty hard on me,” Rubright said. “A lot of other guys haven’t been here the five years I have. During those last four seconds with us down by four was pretty emotional to me.”

This Bronco victory was no fluke, although both teams played hard enough to win. During one sequence, four different Gonzaga players had dived and skidded across the floor trying to retrieve a loose ball.

Simply, though, the Bulldogs could not stop Nash as he rambled from sideline to sideline, scraping defenders off an impossible series of teammates’ picks.

“I played terrible in the first half and I just knew I had to play better in the second half if we were going to win,” said the 6-foot-2 junior from Victoria, British Columbia, who netted seven 3-pointers and 10 free throws in the second half after scoring just five points in the first 20 minutes.

“I wasn’t concerned with their win streak, they kicked our butts here last year and I wanted to get them back,” Nash said. “The only streak I cared about was us being 4-0 in conference.”

Gonzaga appeared to get every rebound and turn the game into a rout in the early going in front of a noisy gathering of 3,800. Ahead 23-7 win 9:28 left in the first half, GU dominated every aspect of the game.

“Maybe, the fact that we got down so bad early created a little better adrenaline for our guys,” SCU coach Dick Davey said. “We finally got Nash going; he missed a lot of shots, but he made some big ones too.”

GU failed to score in the final 5:23 of the first half as the Broncos closed it to 29-20 at half. They assumed their first lead of the game with 8:59 to go when a pair of Nash free throws made it 43-42.

From that point, each possession seemed crucial and many of the standing fans never returned to a sitting position.

As they did in the overtime loss to USF, the Bulldogs had chances but failed to connect, scoring only one basket in the last 2:46 of regulation.

With 1:23 on the clock, center Paul Rogers lost the ball in the low post and then compounded the problems by fouling out going after the loose ball.

On the next possession, point guard Kyle Dixon got trapped in the lane and was called for a 3-second violation.

A driving layup by Scott Snider tied it at 56 with 31 seconds left and neither team could break the knot.

After tying it at 62-62 with 2:55 left in OT, SCU went on a 6-2 run that gave the Broncos enough of a cushion to hold on for the win.

“That’s a tough one to lose,” Fitzgerald said. “We had some real good looks by the right guys down the stretch, but we didn’t make them. The concern I have is our inexperience is hurting us down the stretch, but we played very hard.” “That was tough, but we start a new streak on Saturday,” said Rillie, referring to the visit by Saint Mary’s.

Santa Clara 73, Gonzaga 68, OT SANTA CLARA (4-0, 12-3)

Nash 11-29 10-13 40, Garnett 0-3 0-0 0, Graves 2-3 1-4 5, Sedlock 1-4 0-0 3, Dunne 2-4 1-2 5, Anderson 1-2 0-0 2, Pierce 1-6 2-4 4, Von Buchwaldt 1-2 0-0 2, Zurek 5-10 2-4 12. Totals 24-63 16-27 73.

GONZAGA (0-3, 11-4)

Dixon 5-14 4-6 14, Rillie 4-9 0-0 11, Rogers 4-9 6-11 14, Kinloch 1-7 4-6 6, Rubright 5-10 0-0 11, Morgan 2-3 0-1 4, Nemeth 0-0 0-0 0, Cole 0-0 0-0 0, Bond 0-1 0-0 0, Snider 4-6 0-0 8, Williams 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 25-61 14-24 68.

Halftime score - Gonzaga 29, Santa Clara 20. Regulation - 56-56. Overtime - Santa Clara 17, Gonzaga 12. 3-point goals - Santa Clara 9-26 (Nash 8-17, Garnett 0-2, Sedlock 1-3, Dunne 0-2, Anderson 0-1, Zurek 0-1), Gonzaga 4-19 (Dixon 0-4, Rillie 3-6, Kinloch 0-4, Rubright 1-4, Williams 0-1). Total fouls - Santa Clara 19, Gonzaga 24. Fouled out - Rillie, Rogers. Technical fouls - None. Rebounds - Santa Clara 42 (Pierce, Zurek 7 each), Gonzaga 42 (Kinloch 11, Rubright 10). Assists - Santa Clara 8 (Nash 4), Gonzaga 7 (Dixon 3). Att. - 3,800.