NCAA basketball

NEW YORK CITY – Determined to shake off a slow first half against Connecticut, Graham Ike returned to the court at halftime to warm up his shot. The forward retrieved a basketball, planted himself a few feet from the hoop and started working through his portfolio of low-post moves.

Sometimes, the simplest description is the best. That simple thought popped into our head about the 10th time Jason Benetti pointed out the obvious Saturday night.

PULLMAN – It took Washington State about two hours to polish off a convincing win over Missouri State on Saturday afternoon.

Eastern Washington women’s basketball coach Joddie Gleason knew it would be difficult to contain the reigning West Coast Conference Player of the Year.

NEW YORK – After beating Gonzaga 77-71 on Saturday night, Connecticut coach Dan Hurley told a room of reporters he wouldn’t mind negotiating a new nonconference series with Mark Few’s program, or extending the one that just concluded in front of 18,900 passionate fans at historic Madison Square Garden.

UConn led by three points at halftime, capitalized on Graham Ike’s worst offensive outing in a Gonzaga uniform and stymied the Bulldogs down the stretch to come out with a 77-71 victory in New York City.

Saturday was Gonzaga senior Khalif Battle’s first time playing at Madison Square Garden, but the New Jersey native watched as many NBA games as he could at one of the world’s most famous arenas. He made the most of his debut performance at MSG, draining four 3-pointers and matching his season-high of 21 points in No. 8 Gonzaga’s 77-71 loss to No. 18 UConn.

NEW YORK – Here are three observations from No. 8 Gonzaga’s 77-71 loss to No. 18 Connecticut on Saturday night at Madison Square Garden.

Brigham Young took over in the third quarter Friday for a 72-57 win over Washington State in a nonconference game at Beasley Coliseum in Pullman.

NEW YORK CITY – In building out the December portion of its nonconference schedule, Gonzaga might as well have pulled up a descending list of programs with multiple national championships, scrolled to the top and started making phone calls to see who was available.

NEW YORK CITY – When Dan Hurley was mulling a reported six-year, $70 million offer from the Los Angeles Lakers in June – one of the most compelling storylines of the summer, not only in college basketball but American sports at large – UConn’s basketball coach had a number of conversations that influenced and informed his final decision.

If there’s any PTSD left over from Gonzaga’s double-digit losses to UConn the past two seasons, it should be reassuring to know these will hardly be the same old Huskies lining up against the Bulldogs on Saturday night in New York City.

Gonzaga currently has a love-hate relationship with the 3-point line. The eighth-ranked Zags were on target early with their two best 3-point shooting percentages (41.9 vs. Baylor and 45.5 vs. UMass Lowell) in the season’s first three games. The last month has been rough. In the Zags’ last six games, they’ve made just 29.8%

Wells, the 39th pick in last June’s draft after averaging 12.6 points per game for the Cougars, is the latest success story for an organization that has made finding diamonds in the rough trendy. 

Cougars climb to No. 9 after win over Boise State.

This segment of Gonzaga’s schedule is typical and atypical at the same time. It always is in December as the program juggles dead week last week, which preceded finals week this week and the fast-approaching Christmas holiday break. The goal is trying to mix and match practice times to prepare for some of the biggest tests on the Zags’ non-conference schedule: Kentucky last Saturday, UConn this Saturday at Madison Square Garden in New York City and UCLA on Dec. 28 at the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles.

From staff reports

PULLMAN – Washington State will have to wait a bit longer to find out more about Cedric Coward’s status.

In facing No. 18 UConn on Saturday at Madison Square Garden, No. 8 Gonzaga will encounter a team that’s accounted for two of the program’s 14 losses the last two seasons, as well as a transfer guard who’s been on the winning side as much as he has the losing side in six career meetings with Mark Few and the Bulldogs.