This Rivalry Needs Polish To Really Shine

Never mind the color. Let’s get right to the stats.

In the first half of Saturday’s Gonzaga-Washington State train wreck at the Arena, our heroes combined to miss 31 of 48 shots … and the leading rebounder for each side was “Team.”

This is the equivalent of the punter being MVP of the football team.

Such is the price of November basketball - on top of the Visa-ectomy performed at the box office, of course.

Geography says this game must be played, and common sense says it should be at the Arena. But the calendar says it may never be played stylishly - and the calendar was gospel Saturday night.

The Cougars revved past Gonzaga in the second half and coasted home on fumes to a 75-62 victory - a dubious achievement, perhaps, but an achievement nonetheless. The Bulldogs, meanwhile, have rarely been known as underachievers, but that may have been a compliment this night.

But there will be other nights. That same calendar says so.

“We’ve been without power,” sighed Gonzaga coach Dan Fitzgerald, “but from the looks of the second half we may be getting some.”

Taking heart from evidence gathered once you’ve spotted a team 22 points may be the definition of faith. The Zags did play better - considering they scored 19 points, made 15 turnovers and shot 26 percent in the first half, they could not have played much worse - but getting within nine points in the final 40 seconds was no less a conspiracy than falling so far behind.

“A real positive embarrassment for the guys,” is how WSU coach Kevin Eastman dryly put it, “which is the best kind.”

The winning kind, he means.

The Cougars are now 3-0, no huge surprise in looking at the schedule. Even given their glaring inexperience, 8-0 would be no huge surprise - but then, neither would 5-3.

The surprise, perhaps, is that the kids are acquitting themselves so well - with the possible lone exception of freshman point guard Blake Pengelly, who would seem to be the kid the Cougs need the most.

Pengelly’s minutes dwindled to 9 Saturday night, his shots and assists to zero potentially disastrous news except for the fact that senior Kareem Jackson is playing, if not like his namesake, at least splendidly. Two turnovers in 67 minutes qualifies for a descriptive like that.

His steadiness and the long-range shooting of freshmen Beau Archibald and Chris Crosby goosed the Cougars along until their dray horse, Isaac Fontaine, found his legs.

Normally an amusement park of a player, Fontaine has taken his role as the Cougars’ motor seriously - probably too seriously. He made just one of five shots in the first half against Gonzaga, and probably shouldn’t have taken any of them.

“He knows how to find shots,” said Eastman, “but he tried to find them one-on-one today and he’s not good that way.

“We told him to stop being more involved. When he tries to hunt his shot, he gets very few because he doesn’t accomplish anything out there. He screened more and moved more in the second half, and therefore was able to get more good shot opportunities.”

And, thus, more points - 17 of his 19 in the second half.

The Bulldogs had similar problems, and different ones.

Like WSU, the Zags aren’t getting anything in the way of production out of their freshman point guard, Matt Santangelo, who is now 0-for-12 against Division I opposition.

“If you get a scholarship,” said Fitzgerald, “we hope you make a field goal some time in four years.”

Like Fontaine, GU off guard Lorenzo Rollins couldn’t find his car keys in the first half, making just one of seven shots. But unlike the Cougars, the Zags couldn’t find their other option - 7-foot center Paul Rogers, who had maybe two touches in the paint.

“Average teams, and that’s what we are right now, lose on offense,” said Fitzgerald, repeating a familiar refrain. “It exposes your defense too much. We played really good defense, but we had to play too much in the first half and they wind up with an eight-point run.

“If you tell me we give up 30 points in the first half, I’d say the game was going to the wire. But now we’ve had two halves in which we’ve shot 20 percent, and we’re a team that’s come close the last few years to leading the nation in field-goal percentage. That says an awful lot about our offensive execution.”

It says the execution was awful.

The Zags are now 0-3 in this revived series, including the happy accident of an NIT pairing last March. Fitzgerald is not discouraged, nor is Eastman getting cocky.

“They’re tough to defend,” insisted Eastman. “We play them four or five times, and they’d beat us.”

Said Fitzgerald, “You hate to lose to anybody three times, but this game to us is a good game only because it’s what people want to see and it’s a rival game. I tell you what, I want to beat St. Mary’s a hell of a lot more and I’m sure Kevin would rather beat Oregon State. It’s a good game because it emulates league play better for us, but it’s not more than what people think.

“The fact we fainted a little in the first half tonight is good for us.”

He didn’t call it a positive embarrassment. But only one team can use that line.

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = John Blanchette The Spokesman-Review