It’s not everyday you see that much basketball
A GRIP ON SPORTS • It's not often you leave a game in which you are a spectator sore and tired. But that's exactly how I felt yesterday evening. Of course, we had just watched a game that went four overtimes. Read on.
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• One of the nice thing about sports is you are able to find games at every level, from youth to professional, that show you something you've never seen before. Such was the case yesterday. The Gonzaga women and the USF women played an entire game. But that wasn't enough. They were enjoying themselves so much they decided to play another half. Four overtimes was a school record, a WCC record and a personal record. I have seen, over the past 50-plus years of watching hoop, a three overtime game in person. But yesterday was the first time for a quadruple. It was game that should have finished in regulation if only the GU 3-point defense had been a bit better or USF's Anna Seilund hadn't been spot on from just off the arc as the clock expired. Seilund, a reserve, may have been only in the game because the Dons' Taj Winston was at the hospital, the victim of a legal screen and a teammate who didn't give her any help. Winston was pressuring the ball in the backcourt in the second half when Gonzaga's Shelby Cheslek pealed back to help out. Winston, whose teammate guarding Cheslek was too far away to give her a warning on the screen, went down hard and didn't move. She was immobilized and taken away by ambulance. Her condition was unavailable after the game, according to Tom Clouse's story. The 10-minute wait seemed to give the Dons' energy and they rallied to tie it on Seilund's 3-pointer. It was the Zags turn to rally in the second overtime, when Lindsay Sherbert, the senior playing with a large brace on her right knee, found her way to the rim to send the game to a third OT. Sherbert, who suffered the knee injury early in her senior season, gave Gonzaga a spark at times, despite not moving all that well on her still-healing knee. But she did attack, something the Zags got away from as the game wore on – and their legs wore down. When Aundrea Gordon tied it with another late 3-pointer at the end of the third, I'm sure many Zag fans felt the same way as their team: exhausted. So GU coach Lisa Fortier injected some youth – and freshness – to start the fourth overtime. Emma Stach, the freshman from Germany who sees limited time as a backup point guard, was given a chance to up the energy level. She did. Everyone else, on both teams, seemed to be going at 45 rpms, Stach at 78. She hit the biggest shot of the game, a just-pull-the-trigger 3-pointer with a little less than 2 minutes left that finally put the Dons away. The final score: Gonzaga, 91-84. A game for the ages – and it seemed as if it took the Bronze one to get done.
• Breaking news this morning. Basketball coaching legend Dean Smith has died at age 83. The North Carolina coach spent a lot of seasons trying to win that first national title, then spent the rest of his career amassing wins, 879 in all, then a record. He also retired when he wanted, which is a nice thing to be able to do these days. ... Another legend died yesterday, with golfer Billy Casper, the best putter my dad ever saw, passing away at age 83, just like Smith.
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• WSU: Ernie Kent's walk onto Kilkanny Court in Matthew Knight Arena (brought to you by All-Temperature Cheer and Miller Lite – or something like that) today should be an interesting one. Jacob Thorpe will be there. He previewed the event in his morning post. ... There is an advance in the Eugene paper this morning. ... The WSU track team had a good weekend. ... If you were around the Cougars during the Dick Bennett era, you might understand why so many of the student managers got into coaching. They had a great mentor. The Missoulian has a Q&A with one of those folks, Marlon Stewart.
• Gonzaga: At least the Zag men didn't go four overtimes. With an 8:30 p.m. start, Jim Meehan would have been pulling out that bright red hair of his. As it was, the game wasn't decided until after 10 p.m., when the Zags broke a tie at 55 with an 11-1 run, then held off USF's attempts to rally in the 81-70 victory. Jim has the game story and this blog post. ... Ah, the wacky WCC. Thursday night, Pepperdine defeats BYU and Loyola Marymount hammers USD. Saturday night, BYU powers past Loyola with ease, 87-68, and San Diego destroys the Waves, 72-50. ... St. Mary's had little trouble in Stockton with Pacific, winning 73-58. ... Portland went to Santa Clara and won easily, 74-54.
• EWU: For the first time in the history of the school, the Eagle men and women swept a weekend against the Montana schools. The men did the heavy lifting, winning on the road, including Saturday's gut-it-out 61-51 victory over Montana State. Tyler Harvey missed his second consecutive game. ... The women exploded in the second half – figuratively, not literally – and routed the Bobcats 72-58. ... Around the Big Sky among the men, Weber State handled Idaho State, 70-63, (despite the headline mistake) while Northern Arizona posted an 88-63 win over visiting North Dakota. In the most-important game for Eastern, Sacramento State survived another close one at home, defeating Portland State, 64-60. The Hornets come the Cheney on Thursday.
• Idaho: The Vandals struggled in Missoula and lost to the Griz, 70-56.
• Chiefs: Regina scored twice in the third period and defeated the Chiefs, 4-2. ... Tri-City handled Everett at home, 4-3, in the second of back-to-back games.
• Preps: As the season winds down, the playoffs heat up. Wrestling is into the postseason and we have this roundup. ... There is also roundups of girls and boys basketball action.
• Seahawks: It's been a week. It's time to move on. Dave Boling helps. ... Jerry Brewer thinks the team will rebound – if they stay together. ... John McGrath takes the Hawks to task over their behavior. ... Finally, some last-second thoughts on the defeat.
• Mariners: If you want to get over the Hawk loss, Larry Stone says to look to the Mariners. That's a lot of pressure to put on an unproven team.
• Sounders: One of the most important Sounders, midfielder Ozzie Alonso, has had groin surgery and will be out a while.
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• I'm still feeling the after-effects of a crowded and long Saturday. I may just head back to bed. After all, there are no football games to watch on this Sunday, something that hasn't been said since last summer. Until later ...
