Gonzaga Loses In Ot Bulldogs Fail To Put Dons Away, Fall To 0-2 In Conference

Perhaps now, after a surprising start to the season, the Gonzaga Bulldogs are doing what they’re supposed to be doing.

Not supposed to be doing, exactly, but what they were expected to do: struggle on the road, make the kind of mistakes that characterize an inexperienced team, and lose close games.

They certainly did those and more Saturday, whiffing on several opportunities to put away San Francisco before ultimately losing 106-98 in overtime in front of 3,139 at Memorial Gym.

As predicted by some before the season, GU has slipped to the bottom of the West Coast Conference standings after the opening weekend (0-2 and 11-3 overall) but return home to the Martin Centre Thursday against Santa Clara.

“I’m really proud of their effort on the road, but our inexperience down the stretch really hurt us again,” GU coach Dan Fitzgerald said. “I said this early in the year, this team is going to have trouble on the road, making throws and making the big plays when we have to.”

How did Gonzaga lose this:

Coming into the game an impressive 74-percent free-throw shooting team, GU made just 16 of 27. The most critical of those misses came with :38 left in regulation.

With GU leading 86-83, point guard Kyle Dixon went to the freethrow line for a pair that would have given USF an almost impossible fivepoint deficit.

But Dixon, who was brilliant in almost every other regard Saturday (17 points and eight assists), came up empty in two tries.

“Kyle’s misses were critical,” Fitzgerald said. “But there were a lot of other critical plays, too.”

With 22 seconds on the clock, the Dons’ Gerald Walker missed on a 3-point attempt. Instead of grabbing the rebound and killing USF’s hopes, GU was unable to find the ball and Tyrone Paul pulled in the offensive board for the Dons.

That second chance allowed John Duggan (26 points and 14 rebounds) to nail a distant 3-pointer to tie it at 86-86 with 9 seconds left.

GU’s John Rillie was able to quickly thread through the Dons’ defense until he was stalled in the lane. But Rillie spied Paul Rogers breaking to the hoop on the right baseline and flipped him the ball for an unobstructed dunk.

Game to GU, 88-86. Right?

Wrong, officials charged in to wave the basket off for being too late.

“I had lost sight of the clock,” said Rogers, who had probably his best game at Gonzaga, scoring 26 points and snatching 14 rebounds. “I knew the only thing I could do was get it to the rim in a hurry. The ref said it was about a milli-second late.”

Dixon pulled off another stunning lane drive with the shot-clock expiring to give GU a quick lead in overtime, but USF scored seven quick, unanswered points. From that point, GU had to foul and the Dons managed to pile up 20 points in overtime (11 in free throws).

USF (7-9, 1-2) had lost its two previous league contests by blowing leads late in the game. No such luck for Gonzaga this time, though.

San Francisco 106, Gonzaga 98

GONZAGA (11-3)

Dixon 7-14 1-4 17, Rillie 4-8 0-0 11, Rogers 9-13 8-14 26, Kinloch 6-12 5-6 20, Rubright 2-5 0-0 5, Cole 3-7 0-0 9, Williams 0-0 0-0 0, Morgan 2-4 2-2 6, Snider 2-3 0-1 4, Nemeth 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 35-67 16-27 98.

SAN FRANCISCO (7-9)

Brovelli 3-5 0-0 8, Walker 5-17 5-7 17, Paul 3-7 3-4 10, Duggan 9-16 6-7 6, Fong 1-2 0-0 2, Brass 2-2 3-4 7, Galloway 0-1 3-4 3, Campbell 4-6 4-6 12, Washington 9-15 2-3 21. Totals 36-71 26-35 106.

Halftime-Gonzaga 46, San Francisco 38. 3-Point goals- Gonzaga 12-24 (Kinloch 3-6, Rillie 3-5, Leasure 3-5, Dixon 2-5, Rubright 1-2, Rogers 0-1), San Francisco 8-21 (Walker 2-6, Duggan 2-5, Brovelli 2-3, Washington 1-4, Paul 1-3). Fouled out-Dixon, Rubright, Washington. Rebounds-Gonzaga 30 (Rogers 14), San Francisco 45 (Duggan 14). Assists-Gonzaga 18 (Dixon 8), San Francisco 15 (Brass 7). Total fouls-Gonzaga 22, San Francisco 21. A-3,139.