Bulldogs smother Billikens

Mark Few had seen enough of the softer side of his Gonzaga University men’s basketball team.

Heading into Saturday night’s non-conference matchup against Saint Louis, the Bulldogs’ sixth-year coach was looking for some of that old-time toughness that had characterized GU teams of the past.

And on this night, the Bulldogs gave it to him, aggressively getting into the Billikens’ collective face from the opening tip and staying there for 40 minutes. The end result was a 75-45 win that was every bit as satisfying as it was lopsided.

With leading scorer Ronny Turiaf playing only 17 minutes because of an ankle sprain suffered in Tuesday’s 54-52 road win over Washington State, the 25th-ranked Zags found plenty of heroes in waiting and treated a McCarthey Athletic Center sellout crowd of 6,000 to their fourth straight win

Adam Morrison scored a game-high 20 points and three other Bulldogs finished in double figures. But it was the Zags’ defensive intensity that most impressed Few.

“We needed to get back to establishing ourselves as a hard-nosed team,” he said after watching his Bulldogs limit the Billikens to 17-for-54 shooting (31.5 percent) from the field, while winning the rebounding battle 36-32. “We hadn’t done that yet, quite frankly.

“But I thought we really played hard-nosed basketball tonight. And if you’re going to win the (West Coast Conference) championship and defend your league title, you’re going to have to play that way.”

Turiaf, who came in averaging 23.4 points, scored only two – both of them on free throws – against the Billikens. The 6-foot-10 senior co-captain picked up a couple of early fouls, but Few said that had nothing to do with the fact that he played only 17 minutes and took just two shots.

“He’s hurt,” Few said of Turiaf, who had not practiced since the WSU game, but still managed to snag seven rebounds, block three shots and hand out a couple of assists. “He’s probably only 60-70 percent, but he did a great of still competing out there.

“We knew he was going to be limited, but we had some other guys step up.”

Morrison scored his points on 7-for-15 shooting and also contributed four rebounds and two assists. Point guard Derek Raivio added 13 points and five rebounds – second only to Turiaf – while Erroll Knight and Sean Mallon each finished with 12 points.

“First of all it says that Ronny’s unselfish,” Morrison said, when asked about the Zags’ offensive efficiency in the wake of Turiaf’s limited production and the absence of junior shooting guard Nathan Doudney, who suffered a season-ending knee injury against WSU. “Being a senior and a nationally prominent player, and then passing the way he did tonight and not complaining about not scoring, just shows what kind of person he is, and what kind of a teammate he is.

“On the flip side, it also shows how much balance we have. If Ronny, or anybody else, goes down, we’ve got guys who can pick each other up.”

Knight was the Bulldogs’ defensive catalyst, clamping down on Billikens scoring leader Reggie Bryant early and never letting him catch his breath. Bryant finished with a team-high 16 points, but labored greatly for each of the 11 shots he took.

“When he’s healthy and dialed in, he’s as good an on-ball defender as there is out there,” Few said of Knight, a 6-7 junior. “He’s probably underestimated athletically, because he’s on our team, but he’s a terrific athlete, he’s strong and he can really lock guys down.”

Saint Louis coach Brad Soderberg was once again perplexed by his team’s offensive ineptness. And he wasn’t all that pleased with its effort, either.

“We are not a good basketball team right now, it’s as simple as that,” he said after watching his Billikens lose their fourth straight. “I was hoping near the end of the game we could be close enough to make it interesting, but we were just outclassed in every way.”

Saint Louis made only one of its first 10 shots and didn’t score until more than 5 minutes had ticked off the clock. GU went up 25-9 on a pair of free throws by J.P. Batista with 6:21 left in the first half and led 32-17 at intermission.

The Bulldogs shot just 40.7 percent (11 of 27) in the first half, but made 15 of 23 basket tries in the second and finished the game shooting 52 percent against a Billikens defense that had limited its first six opponents to 55.5 points per game and 35.9 percent shooting.

Next up for the Zags is No. 3-ranked Georgia Tech, which will provide the opposition in next Saturday’s Las Vegas Showdown at the Thomas & Mack Arena in Las Vegas. Tipoff for the game, which will be televised nationally on ESPN, is 9:30 p.m.

Gonzaga 75, Saint Louis 45

Saint Louis (1-6)–Ohanon 1-5 2-2 4, Newborne 6-10 0-1 12, Frericks 1-2 0-0 2, Drejaj 0-7 0-0 0, Bryant 5-11 2-2 16, Polk 2-4 0-0 5, Brown 0-3 0-0 0, Clarke 1-5 1-2 4, Vouyoukas 0-1 0-0 0, Johnson 1-2 0-0 2, Meyer 0-2 0-0 0, Husak 0-2 0-4 0. Totals 17-54 5-11 45.

Gonzaga (7-1)–Turiaf 0-2 2-2 2, Morrison 7-15 5-6 20, Mallon 4-6 4-6 12, Raivio 5-8 0-1 13, Knight 4-7 4-5 12, Altidor-Cespedes 1-3 0-0 2, Batista 2-3 4-4 8, Michaelson 1-1 0-0 2, Floyd 0-0 0-0 0, Gentry 0-0 0-0 0, Pendergraft 1-3 0-0 2, MacLeod 1-2 0-0 2. Totals 26-50 19-24 75.

Halftime–Gonzaga 32, Saint Louis 17. 3-point goals–Saint Louis 6-20 (Bryant 4-7, Polk 1-3, Clarke 1-3, Newborne 0-1, Brown 0-2, Drejaj 0-4), Gonzaga 4-12 (Raivio 3-4, Morrison 1-4, Knight 0-1, Pendergraft 0-1, Altidor-Cespedes 0-2). Fouled out–Vouyoukas. Rebounds–Saint Louis 32 (Frericks 6), Gonzaga 36 (Turiaf 7). Assists–Saint Louis 11 (Drejaj 4), Gonzaga 17 (Mallon 4). Total fouls–Saint Louis 20, Gonzaga 10. A–6000.