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

Bulldogs Reach 20 Wins Again Hendrix Powers Wcc Triumph That Puts Gu Back In First Place

Everyone seems to have an idea about what it takes to win championships. Bakari Hendrix certainly does, and it’s all about waiting. “You wait out the bad stretches and when the good times come around, you take over,” the bullish senior forward said Saturday night after leading Gonzaga University to a 73-60 men’s basketball victory over Portland.

“That’s how you win championships.”

On a night when defense seemed to be the only other constant in an intense but ratty game that produced more loose balls than baskets, Hendrix came up with 27 points, 17 rebounds and praise from both coaches.

And Gonzaga, after waiting out stretches of poor shooting and offensive carelessness, used a couple of scoring runs to pick up a road win that was much more meaningful than artistic.

The victory gave Gonzaga its fifth 20-win season in the last seven years and moved the Bulldogs (20-7 overall, 9-3 in the West Coast Conference) back into sole possession of the WCC lead, a full game ahead of Santa Clara, which lost to Pepperdine.

GU returns home this week to close out the regular season with Martin Centre matchups against Pepperdine at 7 p.m. Thursday and Loyola Marymount at 7 p.m. Saturday. The Bulldogs are unbeaten at home this season and Hendrix, for one, can’t wait for a chance to avenge last year’s late-season collapse that dropped GU from first to fifth in the WCC.

“I like our chances this time,” he said. “We’re tough to beat at home. Basically, it’s a simple scenario: You win two, you get the ring. You don’t win two, you’re disappointed.”

“And we want the ring.”

It would be nice, too, to nail down the No. 1 seed heading into the WCC tournament, which opens Feb. 28 at Santa Clara’s Toso Pavilion.

But first-year Bulldogs coach Dan Monson is not looking that far ahead.

“Like I reminded the guys, last year we had a one-game lead with three to play and it was a home game (loss to San Diego) that started our slide,” he explained. “We can’t take it for granted - just because we’re at home - that we’re going to win.

“Pepperdine is coming off two really good wins, and Loyola’s playing the best they have all year.”

Still, if the Bulldogs can defend and rebound like they did Saturday night against Portland, they will be hard to run down.

“For the first time this year, we sustained our defensive effort for 40 minutes,” Monson said. “It was a war of two defenses, actually, but the difference was that on our misses we got some second chances.

“I thought our kids combined their defense with a lot of good rebounds and didn’t let them get going at home with a lot of second shots.”

The Bulldogs, who also received 21 points from Matt Santangelo and 16 from Richie Frahm, held Portland (13-11, 6-6) to 35.7 percent shooting (20-56) from the floor and forced 15 turnovers. They also outrebounded coach Rob Chavez’s smallish Pilots 46-36, to help offset some uncharacteristically poor shooting.

“I thought both teams played very hard,” Chavez said. “Gonzaga just did a better job of doing what it had to do to win. And we just had no answer for Hendrix inside.”

Hendrix, the front-runner for WCC player of the year, made 8 of 17 field goals and 10 of 14 free throws.

Gonzaga 73, Portland 60

Gonzaga (20-7) - Leasure 0-5 0-0 0, Hendrix 8-17 10-14 27, Dench 1-2 0-0 2, Frahm 6-11, 2-2 16, Santangelo 7-10 5-7 21, Hall 0-4 3-4 3, Calvary 0-2 0-0 0, Griffin 1-2 2-5 4, Floyd 0-1 0-0 0, Nilson 0-1 0-0 0, Spink 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 23-55 22-32 73.

Portland (13-11) - Anderson 7-15, 5-10 20, Collins 2-2 1-2 5, Dejworek 2-9 1-3 5, Franklin 3-11 2-2 10, Holton 1-8 0-0 2, Rainwater 2-5 3-4 8, Andrews 2-4 2-5 7, Sandrin 1-2 1-2 3. Totals 20-56 15-28 60.

Halftime-Gonzaga 30, Portland 25. 3-Point goals-Gonzaga 5-15 (Frahm 2-3, Santangelo 2-4, Hendrix 1-1, Calvary 0-1, Hall 0-2, Leasure 0-4), Portland 5-16 (Franklin 2-5, Andrews 1-1, Rainwater 1-4, Anderson 1-5, Dejworek 0-1). Fouled out-Collins, Sandrin. Rebounds-Gonzaga 46 (Hendrix 17), Portland 36 (Holton 7). Assists-Gonzaga 9 (Santangelo 3), Portland 8 (Holton 5). Total fouls-Gonzaga 22, Portland 23. Technicals-Portland (Anderson), Gonzaga (Hendrix). A-3,497

, DataTimes