Back with my day-after post following Gonzaga's 62-58 loss to Memphis on Saturday. Lots more on the game below.

First, the links: S-R gamer, S-R photos, Memphis newspaper gamer.

As mentioned in last night's post, ex-Zag Matt Bouldin tells his side of the story after testing positive for a banned substance.

Read on.

--The game was ultimately decided in the closing minutes, but after watching the replay it really started to slip away from Gonzaga in the last 6 minutes of the first half. The Zags built a 23-15 lead and looked primed to stretch it to double digits. Instead, they went into halftime down by two.

GU made just 2 of 12 shots during that span. One of those misses was Steven Gray’s 50-foot heave just before the halftime buzzer. Of the other 11 shots, at least nine were pretty good looks, a couple virtually uncontested. The only iffy shots were a drive and pull-up by Manny Arop and Gray’s tough 8-footer in the lane that he coaxed in. GU had three offensive rebounds that they failed to convert.

Other than Gray’s field goal, the only shot to fall was Marquise Carter’s 3-pointer (he turned down a wide open 3 a couple minutes later). Kelly Olynyk made two free throws after Memphis was whistled for a rebounding foul.

GU was 9 of 19 from the field after Olynyk’s 3 put GU in front 23-15. They finished the half 11 of 31 (35.5 percent).

--The officials, I believe it was a Conference USA crew, did one of the better jobs I’ve seen at a Gonzaga game this season. That said, the technical foul on Olynyk seemed to be an over-reaction to a minor dustup. Olynyk and Will Coleman bumped into each other during a dead ball, Olynyk extended his elbow a bit and followed with a couple of words. He was hit with a T and Will Barton made both free throws.

“It wasn’t really anything,” said Olynyk, adding that he didn’t use profanity. “It was kind of soft, but they weren’t going to let anything escalate.”

Olynyk said the T was called for what he said, not for his elbow.

--The more highly regarded of the Barton brothers is Will, a 6-foot-6 freshman who is averaging 13.1 points and 4.8 rebounds. But it was Antonio, a 6-2 freshman averaging 7.7 points and 2.4 boards, who did more damage Saturday. He had 17 points, hit 3 of 6 3s and 4 of 5 free throws. He also had four rebounds.

Will finished with a packed stat line: 12 points, seven rebounds, six assists, four turnovers and three steals. He was 3 of 12, 0 of 7 on 3s.

“He was really good,” Few said on Antonio. “He hit big shots for them. He’s the one that kept them in the first half I thought. I know his brother (Will) was getting a lot of publicity throughout high school and probably during this year but (Antonio’s) a heck of a college player. He deserves to get a lot of credit.”

--Olynyk had his best scoring game since tallying 15 against Lafayette in late December. He finished with 10 points in 15 minutes. He made 2 of 3 3s.

“They’re super athletic, their bigs are really strong,” he said. “It’s a different team, especially coming out of our WCC run and seeing a team like this. You’re reading a whole different book and you have to be able to adjust.”

Memphis played without Wesley Witherspoon (knee), a talented 6-9 junior forward who had 26 points in last year’s game. The Tigers’ athleticism disrupted GU’s offense at times.

“It was a combination of their athleticism mixed with us being stagnant,” Gray said. “I think if we would have moved more and executed better, things would have opened up more. If you’re going to be stagnant against athleticism and long arms, there’s not going to be anything going on or lanes. It just shuts everything down.”

--Gonzaga made a spirited comeback after falling behind 47-34. It wasn’t exactly a pretty run, but it was effective. Olynyk’s 3 started it, pulling GU within 47-37. Next: Dower drew a charging foul, but GU missed twice at the offensive end. Then Gray missed an open 3 and shouted “Dang it” as he ran back on defense. Manny Arop had a turnover and Stockton missed a short bank shot before Olynyk’s layup on a feed from Gray, breaking a three-minute scoring drought.

“We had the one group in there and they made a nice comeback and put us in position to win the game,” Few said. “And they deserve a lot of credit.”

Memphis was stuck at 47 until Olynyk was called for the T about 25 seconds later.

“We played our game, got our shots and got some stops on defense that really helped us,” Olynyk said of the comeback. “And we ran a little bit.”

--The schools issued a statement at halftime announcing that the last two games of the series were “postponed.” The teams have played the last six years with Memphis winning five times. Gonzaga cited next year’s addition of BYU to the WCC, which adds two high-profile games, as one of the reasons for calling off the series.

“We added a couple conference games so it’s tough,” Few said. “I don’t even know if we’ll be able to mix in non-leaguers in the middle now so we need to just take a step back and figure it out. It’s been a good series so hopefully we can continue it here after we take a look at it.”

My guess is the only way that it resumes (at least during the schools’ conference seasons) is if BYU doesn’t stay long in the WCC. One of the holdups to future games in the series was ironing out TV arrangements (Conference USA announced a broadcast deal with FOX in January, Gonzaga typically works with ESPN on its bigger non-conference matchups).

Another possible issue: With eight teams in the WCC, Gonzaga always had an open date on the week when it plays travel partner Portland. With the WCC going to nine teams next season, the conference schedule will change and it’s possible GU may not have a similar opening.

STATS OF NOTE

--Gonzaga has lost three games in Spokane, two at home in the McCarthey Athletic Center, and Saturday’s in the Arena. The Zags also lost in Pullman.

--Point guard Demetri Goodson had seven points and a team-high seven rebounds (three offensive) in 17 minutes. David Stockton didn’t score in his 23 minutes. He finished with three turnovers, a costly one in the final 90 minutes, and three assists.

--Gray, with 38 minutes, was the only Zag to play more than 26 minutes.

--Three Memphis reserves logged at least 30 minutes.

--GU’s 35.8 shooting percentage was its second worst of the season. Kansas State held Gonzaga to 33.3 percent. Gonzaga hadn’t shot below 42 percent since Xavier (38.1).

--Elias Harris has gone three straight games without reaching double figures. That hasn’t happened since IUPUI, San Diego State and Kansas State, when he was battling a shoulder injury and, after San Diego State, a sore Achilles tendon.

--Gray has been in double digits in 11 consecutive games.

--Olynyk is 10 of 22 on 3s (45.5 percent) this season.

--Back-up guard Charles Carmouche hit two 3s and scored 10 points to help Memphis rally late for a 32-30 halftime lead.

--The Zags’ top three scorers (Gray, Sacre and Harris) combined for just 29 points. Only twice when the trio has been reasonably healthy have they scored fewer (25 vs. San Diego and 19 against Washington State). The three played just 58 minutes in the blowout over the Toreros.

They typically contribute 40.3 points per game.

QUOTES

Few on the lack of energy/emotion: “They need to bring it. That’s what you do when you play college basketball. The games are too precious. You have to play with fire and emotion. It starts with that.”

Gray on GU’s effort: “You try and prepare the same way for games. Some days you’re not feeling it, but that’s why we’re here. We have to learn to step up, even if we’re not feeling it that day. We just have to put this behind us and get focused on conference.”

Olynyk on the team’s inability to turn the corner: “It’s kind of tough, some people are struggling a bit. We feel like we’re playing good and we get knocked back a bit. The big key is to stay focused and play our game because hopefully it’ll come.”

Antonio Barton on Memphis’ near 12-minute field goal drought: “It was one of those moments when teams make their run and normally we would fold, but we didn’t fold this time. We gutted it out and gained the lead and closed it out.”

Few: “It reminds me of a couple years back. You play a hard-fought emotional game at Portland. Basically, that’s what we spent the last 36 hours talking about, that this game was about emotion, fire and toughness and we have to somehow find that within us. I think our tanks were pretty empty there. At least it looked like it.”

Memphis’ Coleman on defending Sacre: “Me and (Tarik) Black, we did our thing. He’s a real big, respectable guy and we held him under double digits. We tried a lot of things, but we did the most we could and held him down.”

Few: “They’re athletic, but we missed a lot of open shots. The right guys were taking them. We normally don’t shot that many 3s, but almost all of Steve’s were toed-up (to the line). Carter’s a very good 3-point shooter. Again, they won the battle of the real estate inside. That’s kind of been our forte and they did a nice job bodying up on us and pushing us out of there. And on the other end they did a good job of getting their catches low and going to work on our guys. We tried doubling them early and they were able to kick out for 3s.”

Tigers coach Josh Pastner on defending GU’s interior: “In the breakdown on our scouting report, obviously we had to do a good job on Sacre. He’s very good. Harris is good. Gray is very good. Those guys are elite guys. Our whole thing, we had to do a job on Sacre.”

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