NCAA basketball

The box score won’t show that the Gonzaga women’s basketball team overcame a physical opponent Saturday afternoon.

MOSCOW, Idaho – Getting a young team to believe in its capabilities has been perhaps the top priority for Idaho coach Alex Pribble as the Vandals have been regularly left in the dust in the second half by opponents during a losing streak that has reached seven games.

For all the excellent basketball the Eastern Washington men’s team has played this season, one line item stood as an outlier: rebounding.

From staff reports

From staff reports

STOCKTON, Calif. – Graham Ike and Anton Watson have been indispensable pieces for Gonzaga’s frontcourt this season. More than once, the Bulldogs have learned how fast things can snowball when the veteran forwards aren’t on the floor.

Ryan Nembhard

From staff reports

STOCKTON, Calif. – Facing a sound and sturdy team from San Francisco, offensive issues piled up for Gonzaga through the opening quarter of Thursday night’s West Coast Conference showdown in Spokane.

It's hard to imagine the 'Pac-2' would want nine Mountain West schools, much less all of them. Several are so lacking in competitive success and media value that they would weaken a rebuilt Pac-12.

STOCKTON, Calif. – Through 21 games this season, eight players have led Pacific in scoring and nine more in rebounding. At 6-15 overall and 0-6 in West Coast Conference play, the Tigers won’t give Gonzaga the same headaches they’ve encountered game planning for teams in the upper tier of the conference, but their offensive balance can still make things difficult, especially on short prep.

Gonzaga’s head coach has mentioned several times that fans should anticipate closer games, especially on the road, because the Zags don’t have the talent level to simply show up and win big. He didn’t say it specifically but that figures to apply to home games, particularly against the better teams in the West Coast Conference. The first of those on the conference schedule arrived Thursday and resulted in a hard-fought 77-72 win over San Francisco that the Zags made more stressful than necessary with some faulty free-throw shooting.

Graham Ike’s free-throw shooting and low-post scoring were some of the biggest keys to Gonzaga’s second-half rally during a gutsy 77-72 win over San Francisco Thursday at the McCarthey Athletic Center.

Graham Ike

If your excitement grade for a Gonzaga basketball game is predicated on how close the outcome is, then the Zags’ 77-72 key West Coast Conference home win over San Francisco probably graded pretty well. It certainly did for the ESPN2 crew of Dave Flemming and Sean Farnham on Thursday night.

MOSCOW, Idaho – Idaho’s game against Northern Arizona featured a Star Wars promotion, and the Force was strong with someone in the ICCU Arena Thursday.

It was an inbounds pass Eastern Washington practices from time to time, and both LeJuan Watts and head coach David Riley made clear that on the play Watts is never supposed to be option No. 1, 2 or 3.

The last time the Gonzaga women’s basketball team dropped a West Coast Conference game, it happened at Santa Clara about this time a year ago.

SEATTLE – There’s been one truism during Mike Hopkins’ seven-year tenure with the Washington men’s basketball team: When the Huskies give up 80 points they almost always lose.