Gonzaga Sweats Out Slim Victory Over Sad Sac State Gu Holds Off Pesky Hornets In Ot Win, Moves To 11-1 Heading Into Wcc Play

Surely, Dan Fitzgerald had to be kidding.

Who could have taken seriously his protests that Sacramento State - a team that had won only six games in the last 2 years - could pose a challenge to his oncedefeated Gonzaga Bulldogs?

Fitzgerald, the Gonzaga coach, probably wishes he hadn’t been quite so prescient as the Hornets scared the Bulldogs for nearly 45 minutes before GU pulled out a 77-72 overtime win in front of 554 at Hornet Gym.

“We played a decent team,” Fitzgerald said. “They’re certainly as good as some of the teams we’ve played. We didn’t play very well and they could have very easily won that game. On the other hand, we’ll take it and hopefully we’ll learn from it.”

Sac State slips to 3-11 while the 11-1 Bulldogs open defense of their West Coast Conference title Thursday at San Diego.

Gonzaga sweated out 13 lead changes after halftime.

And it had to come up with several key defensive stops after Sac State took a 62-61 lead with 1:48 left in regulation.

“We played our best in the last 7 minutes,” Fitzgerald said.

Jon Kinloch tied it at 62 by making 1 of 2 free throws at 1:27, but neither team could score after that - forcing overtime.

In OT, GU guard Kyle Dixon scored seven points and John Rillie added 4-for-4 freethrow shooting to allow the Bulldogs to escape. The Bulldogs made all seven tries from the line in overtime to finish an impressive 21 of 24 in free throws (87.5 percent).

Kinloch and center Paul Rogers paced GU with 19 points, Kinloch hitting all four of his 3-point attempts and Rogers pulling down nine rebounds. Dixon finished with 17 points.

GU built a 24-8 lead and then must have considered the game in the bag.

“We have to take some of the responsibility for that,” Fitzgerald said of what could have been a case of Gonzaga’s overconfidence. “We were harping on them and harping on them, but it was tough to convince them.”

GU was then outscored 23-8 and owned only a 32-31 lead at halftime. Sac State, coached by former Idaho player and Washington State assistant coach Don Newman, led by as many as four with only 4 minutes left in regulation.