NCAA basketball

It took 3½ quarters Saturday afternoon before the Gonzaga women’s basketball team finally found its rhythm. And for those 3½ quarters, the Loyola Marymount Lions didn’t look like a winless West Coast Conference team.

PULLMAN – This may be David Riley’s first year as Washington State’s head coach, but it’s hardly his first rodeo in the region. A Seattle native, he spent the first decade-plus of his coaching career at Eastern Washington, giving him some awareness of WSU throughout the years.

For long stretches of Thursday’s game at Gill Coliseum, Gonzaga’s Graham Ike and Oregon State’s Parsa Fallah traded body blows and baskets before both players eventually fouled out in overtime.

The impromptu party on Oregon State’s home court hadn’t died down by the time Gonzaga coach Mark Few started a postgame interview one level below in a basement hallway next to the visiting locker room at Gill Coliseum.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – As suboptimal combinations go, yielding baskets and 3-pointers, putting a good free-throw shooting team on the line and failing to follow the scouting report isn’t ideal – as Gonzaga found out Thursday night.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Graham Ike delivered the biggest shot of his career at the most opportune time of Gonzaga’s overtime loss to Oregon State at Gill Coliseum.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Here are three observations from No. 16 Gonzaga's 97-89 overtime loss to Oregon State on Thursday night at Gill Coliseum.

PULLMAN — Washington State slogged through a long stretch of poor offense against San Diego on Thursday night, trying to find any way to snap a dry spell. The Cougars couldn’t stop turning it over, and even as their defense stepped up, they needed baskets to avoid a costly loss.

MOSCOW, Idaho – Jack Payne seems happy whether he’s wearing board shorts or boots.

From staff reports

Superwoman - otherwise known as Yvonne Ejim - made an appearance at McCarthey Athletic Center Thursday in the nick of time.

Gonzaga played from behind most of the extra session and fell 97-89, prompting OSU students to storm the court.

What Idaho is really angling after, however, is to recreate some of the success they enjoyed four decades ago – topped by a stellar 1981-82 season that saw them finish sixth in the nation with a 27-3 record.

SEATTLE — So just where exactly is this thing going?

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Gonzaga hasn’t had much luck in close games. Neither has Oregon State.

PULLMAN – Examine Washington State’s road loss to Gonzaga on Saturday, especially early in the second half, and you’ll find a window into some of the Cougars’ recent struggles. You’ll also find how they’re solving them

When Bree Salenbien tore her anterior cruciate ligament for the third time nearly a year ago, she said in a statement she needed time to decide what her future would hold.

Junior forward Michael Rataj is the last of Oregon State’s impressive 2022 recruiting class still wearing a Beavers’ uniform. The German native arrived at OSU with Tyler Bilodeau (transferred to UCLA after last season), Jordan Pope (Texas), KC Ibekwe (Washington), Gonzaga Prep grad Jayden Stevens (Idaho), Nick Krass (Tarleton State) and Donovan Grant (walk-on at Georgetown last season). Rataj stayed with the Beavers, even after a difficult start to his sophomore season. He had a tumor removed from his shin prior to the season and missed most of preseason preparations and the first three games.

Oregon State coach Wayne Tinkle and Gonzaga counterpart Mark Few go back nearly three decades. They first met when Tinkle, playing professionally in the late 1990s after a standout career at Montana, helped at then-GU head coach Dan Fitzgerald’s camps.