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

Gray shines in debut


Northern Colorado's Jabril Banks has the ball slapped away by Gonzaga's Abdullahi Kuso in the first half of the Bulldogs' 77-57 win. 
 (Dan Pelle / The Spokesman-Review)

The timing of Steven Gray’s broken wrist in an exhibition game in early November was unfortunate, but the timing of his return was just about ideal for the Gonzaga University men’s basketball team.

The Bulldogs were without injured starting guard Matt Bouldin, but Gray provided a spark off the bench with 12 points as Gonzaga overcame a slow start and rolled past Northern Colorado 77-57 Monday in a non-league game in front of another sellout crowd of 6,000 at the McCarthey Athletic Center.

Gonzaga has grown accustomed to being without key players – Josh Heytvelt (stress fracture) has missed all 11 games and Gray had been sidelined until Monday.

The plan was to ease Gray, a 6-foot-4 true freshman from Bainbridge, Wash., into his first regular-season action, but that was modified when Bouldin pulled a calf muscle and then sprained an ankle – the same one he tweaked earlier this season – in separate portions of Friday’s practice.

In fact, Gonzaga head coach Mark Few modified several things last week when the injury bug starting biting his players.

“We thought we’d have the week (between the Cal State Northridge game Dec. 8 and Monday’s contest) to get better and really clean some things up,” Few said. “Matt gets hurt, (Abdullahi) Kuso rolled his ankle, Jeremy (Pargo) hyperextended his knee and Austin (Daye) rolled his ankle. I was just trying to survive this week. We couldn’t really spend a lot of time on doing things when we had that many guys going down.”

Bouldin was the only player of those mentioned by Few who didn’t play Monday. His status for Thursday’s game against Oklahoma is uncertain.

Daye led Gonzaga with 18 points, Micah Downs chipped in 17 and Pargo added 10 points and eight assists.

“It’s unfortunate, but we’re doing a good job of pushing through (the injuries),” said Daye, who added seven boards as GU, outrebounded by four in the first half, came back to win that statistic 45-37. “Steven played great. He hit his first shot; that takes a lot of guts.”

Gray’s first shot was a 3-pointer, and it gave the Bulldogs (9-2) their first lead at 17-16.

“My wrist is a little sore at times, but it doesn’t affect me very much,” said Gray, who also filled in at point guard when Pargo went to the bench.

Gray didn’t wear a brace or tape on his right wrist because doctors told him it wouldn’t provide extra protection because of the location of the fracture.

“They said it’s like 90 percent healed,” Gray said. “They said it’s as healed as it’s going to get for a while.”

Northern Colorado (5-4) took an 8-0 lead as GU started out 0 of 6 from the field and turned the ball over twice. But Downs, who missed his first three 3-point attempts, hit his next four before halftime as Gonzaga quickly moved in front by double figures.

“After the first three shots I got a little frustrated, but coach (Few) kept telling me, ‘Don’t worry about it, you’ll start making it,’ ” Downs said. “We didn’t have a whole lot of energy coming out. Coach talked to us and said the students weren’t here and some of the regular fans weren’t here, so we have to create our own energy. That’s what we did the last 10 minutes of the first half and coming into the second half.”

The Bears had a miserable shooting half, making just 6 of 25 attempts. Throw out the 3-of-3 shooting by forward Jabril Banks, who eventually scored a team-high 18 points, and the Bears made only 3 of 22 shots.

Northern Colorado missed its first 13 3-point attempts before Neal Kingman connected with 13:03 remaining. By then, GU was in front by 17.

Gonzaga extended its lead to 23 on a couple of occasions.

The biggest ovations of the night were reserved for Gray when he made his first shot and 7-foot-4 Will Foster, whose dunk with four minutes remaining brought the crowd to its feet. Much like his six-minute stint against Washington State, Foster was again a factor defensively, blocking two shots and altering numerous others.

“Once he gets the ball, the crowd gets a little more excited,” Pargo said of Foster. “He blocks shots and starts fast breaks and when he gets the opportunity, he dunks it, too.”