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Gonzaga Basketball

Gonzaga avenges earlier loss to San Francisco Dons

From a tie for fourth place to fourth place alone. From a tie for third place to a tie for second place. And now, solo second place.

The Gonzaga men’s basketball team has made up quite a bit of ground the last three weeks. The Bulldogs continued their climb up the West Coast Conference standings by handling San Francisco 70-53 in front of 6,000 Saturday at the McCarthey Athletic Center.

Gonzaga’s victory sets up a showdown with Saint Mary’s (22-6, 10-2) on Thursday. A victory in Moraga, Calif., and Saturday in San Diego would guarantee Gonzaga (19-9, 9-3) at least a share of its 11th consecutive WCC crown. USF (14-13, 8-4) dropped into third place.

“We’re playing for a league championship on the last week of the year, you can’t ask for anything else,” head coach Mark Few said. “These guys deserve credit for putting us in that position. They’ve done a great job of taking it game by game and not collapsing under the gloom and doom.”

The Bulldogs left the gloom of a three-game WCC losing streak behind by winning their last six conference games. The key: All six foes were held under 38 percent shooting. San Francisco, which scored 96 points in an overtime win against GU last month, had the high-water mark at 37.7 percent.

“Everyone’s starting to buy in and get dedicated to guarding their man and making them take tough shots,” senior guard Steven Gray said. “If you do that, the percentages should play out.”

GU was solid at both ends of the court. The Zags, leading by two at half, made their first eight shots of the second half, including Marquise Carter’s three rapid-fire 3s and treys by Gray and Demetri Goodson, to lead 55-39.

The Bulldogs finished with 16 assists and a season-low seven turnovers, two of those coming in the final five minutes when the issued had been decided.

“We were just moving the ball and we did a better job with shot selection,” Gray said. “That could get better, especially in my case, but we got a lot of good looks. Marquise had a great weekend and that had a lot to do with it. It opened up so much for everyone else.”

Gray contributed 19 points, six rebounds, three assists and two steals. Elias Harris had 14 points and seven boards. Carter added five rebounds, three assists and three steals. Harris, Robert Sacre and Sam Dower combined for five assists.

“We knew they were going to double-team, triple us, and try to get us in a frenzy,” Dower said. “So we passed it out and guys were wide open.”

Carter followed up his 3s with an 18-footer that gave Gonzaga its first double-digit lead, 49-39.

“I hit the first shot, any good player is going to take the next one when it’s open,” Carter said.

At the tail end of the Bulldogs’ 21-7 run, USF had six straight empty possessions (three turnovers and three missed shots).

“They were hurting us when we were helping and they were kicking it out,” Carter said. “We stopped doing that (in the second half) and we kind of held them.”

Michael Williams scored 13 points, the only Don with more than eight. USF had eight assists and 18 turnovers. The Dons played without starting center Perris Blackwell (flu) for the second straight game. Starting wing Rashad Green took a shot to his head and appeared to be dazed when he left with 5:10 remaining. He was taken to the hospital for further evaluation.

“We’re still a team that is very much influenced by how we’re playing offensively and it can’t be that way,” USF coach Rex Walters said. “If you still guard, you’ll get easier shots, transition layups, better drives and kicks. It was two-fold. We didn’t guard well and then we got rushed (offensively).”

Carter’s hot stretch has coincided with GU’s six-game WCC winning streak. He has four double-figures scoring games in that span.

“He’s comfortable, he’s confident,” Few said.

Gonzaga 70, San Francisco 53

USF FG FT Reb
Min M-A M-A O-T A PF PTS
Caloiaro 27 2-6 1-1 0-9 1 1 6
Diarra 15 3-7 0-0 0-0 0 5 6
Williams 32 5-11 0-0 0-0 2 3 13
Green 21 2-6 2-2 1-2 1 0 6
Doolin 34 2-4 0-0 1-5 4 1 5
Petrovic 20 2-7 2-2 1-6 0 0 7
Raffington 24 3-7 2-5 1-5 0 2 8
Dickerson 14 1-4 0-0 1-3 0 0 2
Johnson 13 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 1 0
Totals 20-53 7-10 9-36 8 13 53

Percentages: FG .377, FT .700. 3-Point Goals: 6-17, .353 (Williams 3-7, Doolin 1-2, Petrovic 1-3, Caloiaro 1-4, Dickerson 0-1). Team Rebounds: 6. Blocked Shots: 1 (Caloiaro). Turnovers: 18 (Raffington 5, Williams 4, Diarra 3, Petrovic 3, Doolin 2, Caloiaro). Steals: 4 (Green, Johnson, Dickerson, Raffington). Technical Fouls: None.

Gonzaga FG FT Reb
Min M-A M-A O-T A PF PTS
Harris 26 6-12 1-2 2-7 2 3 14
Sacre 16 0-3 0-0 1-2 2 3 0
Carter 34 7-10 1-2 1-5 3 2 18
Goodson 15 2-3 0-0 0-3 3 1 5
Gray 34 7-18 2-2 2-6 3 0 19
Arop 2 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Stockton 25 0-4 0-0 0-0 2 1 0
Olynyk 12 2-5 2-2 3-6 0 2 6
Mnninghff 5 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 1 0
Keita 2 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1 0
Hart 8 0-0 0-0 0-1 0 0 0
Dower 21 4-8 0-0 1-4 1 1 8
Totals 28-65 6-8 10-37 16 15 70

Percentages: FG .431, FT .750. 3-Point Goals: 8-25, .320 (Carter 3-5, Gray 3-9, Goodson 1-1, Harris 1-3, Dower 0-1, Olynyk 0-1, Monninghoff 0-2, Stockton 0-3). Team Rebounds: 3. Blocked Shots: 6 (Harris 2, Monninghoff, Dower, Sacre, Hart). Turnovers: 7 (Gray, Olynyk, Harris, Monninghoff, Stockton, Carter, Dower). Steals: 7 (Carter 3, Gray 2, Olynyk, Sacre). Technical Fouls: None.

Halftime—Gonzaga 34-32. A—6,000.