Talk About Defensive Specialists Hall Does His Part For Gu By Giving Lewis An Earful
He came, he yapped, he conquered.
Quentin Hall, Gonzaga’s loquacious 5-foot-8 senior guard, did a masterful job Thursday afternoon of defending Minnesota’s scoring leader, Quincy Lewis, during the opening round of the NCAA West Regional at KeyArena.
Hall shadowed Lewis out of a diamond-and-one much of the game and, despite giving up 11 inches in height, helped hold the Gophers’ 6-7 shooting guard to eight points - more than 15 under his regular-season average.
He did it by using his quickness to beat Lewis to every spot on the floor and his mouth to get deep inside Lewis’ head.
As usual, Hall talked trash throughout GU’s 75-63 win. At one point, teammate Casey Calvary walked over to listen to what his teammate was yelling up at the obviously frustrated Lewis, who is expected to be a firstround NBA draft pick.
“He told him, `NBA, my something,”’ explained Calvary, who ended up breaking into laughter. “I can’t say what `something’ was. Then, he kept calling him `Bustah, - hey, you’re a Bustah.’ His favorite word is `Bustah.’
“Q gets really excited, and I think early in the game he really got into (Lewis’) head. He had to take tough shots and never really got it going, didn’t really get any open 3s or anything. Good for Q. He can say whatever he wants as long as we win.”
Neither Lewis nor Hall wanted to make a big thing out of the trash talking.
“You have to give them credit, they played some good defense and were aggressive,” Lewis said after making just 3 of 19 shots and going 0 for 5 from 3-point range.
“I don’t know if I got into his head or not,” said Hall, “but that was my plan.”
So, did Lewis answer back?
“When you’re not scoring, you can’t say nothin’ back,” Hall said, reciting the First Law of trash-talking. “So I guess I won that battle, too.”
Matt Santangelo, Hall’s backcourt running mate, has learned to live with Hall’s talking and the problems it causes.
“Yeah, all the time I’m trying to calm down the people he’s irritated talking trash to out there,” Santangelo said. “They come over to me and say, `Hey, why doesn’t that guy shut up?’ I just tell ‘em he’s OK. It’s nothing personal. I’ve got to butter them up a little bit to keep the fire down.”
NCAA TOURNAMENT Peak performers Thursday’s stars West Lamont Long hit a jumper with 5.5 seconds left that gave New Mexico a win over Missouri. Harold Arceneaux scored 36 points to lead Weber State over a stunned North Carolina. South Adrian Peterson scored 28 points to lead Oklahoma State to a victory over Syracuse. Ben Walker and Rodney Buford scored 16 points each to lead Creighton over Louisville. Thursday’s upsets South (12) Detroit Mercy 56, (5) UCLA 53. West (14) Weber St. 76, (3) North Carolina 74. Stories, C5, C6 Coming up at KeyArena Saturday: Stanford vs. Gonzaga, 1:30 p.m. TV: CBS. Radio: KXLY 920