Zags Fall Flat Against Broncos Gu Coach Surprised His Bulldogs Capable Of Taking Such A Hard Fall

Mark Few figured there would be nights like this.

Sort of like this, anyway.

But even in his most unsettling nightmare, Gonzaga University’s second-year men’s basketball coach never imagined anything quite as hard to stomach as Saturday night’s humbling 94-69 loss to Boise State.

“I guess I’m just too positive a thinker,” said Few, whose Bulldogs are still without injured point guard Dan Dickau. “I thought we might struggle, but I didn’t think we would just cave in. Some of our kids struggled over at Montana, but they didn’t cave in.

“Tonight they caved in. Tonight was a total collapse by everybody that stepped on the floor.”

Few’s Bulldogs (5-2), who had been inching steadily closer to a spot in the Top 25 rankings of the Associated Press poll, played like a young, frightened team for the first time this year. And they played that way on a night when the Broncos (5-2) came with their best effort of the season and thoroughly delighted a BSU Pavilion crowd of 8,879.

BSU, in winning its fifth straight following season-opening losses at Cincinnati and Kansas, shot 55 percent (33 of 60) from the field and got career scoring performances from Abe Jackson and Kejuan Woods.

Jackson, a 6-foot-7 junior forward who didn’t start following a weeklong battle with the flu, knocked down a school-record nine 3-pointers and finished with 29 points.

Woods, a senior forward, added 22 points on 9-for-13 shooting from the field.

The loss was GU’s worst since March 3, 1990, when the Bulldogs lost to Loyola Marymount 121-84 in the opening round of the West Coast Conference tournament.

“I never figured it would snowball this bad,” said Few, who must now try to restore some confidence in his team prior to Saturday’s matchup against eighth-ranked Florida at the Orange Bowl Classic in Sunrise, Fla. “We just didn’t have an answer for anything. We tried every defense we had, and even some new ones, and we never could get a stop.”

The Bulldogs did not defend with the same passion they’ve shown throughout the early part of the year, and they seemed hurried and out of synch offensively, as well.

With its perimeter game rendered harmless by frigid outside shooting, GU was forced to rely almost solely on senior forward Casey Calvary for its offensive production. And Boise did a masterful job of rallying around the Zags’ scoring leader every time he touched the ball.

Calvary finished with 19 points and eight rebounds, but he turned the ball over four times and picked up a couple of chippy fouls after seeming to let the Broncos get under his skin - as well as inside his jersey - with their swarming, hands-on defensive approach.

“It wasn’t good,” Few said of his team’s offensive woes, which included 7-for-21 shooting from 3-point range. “There wasn’t one redeeming quality in that entire game that I can pick out.”

BSU coach Rod Jensen, on the other hand, was elated, especially with the way his team fought through flu problems that had limited the practice time of three starters and two key reserves.

“It was a great win for us against one of the better programs across the country,” he said.

“It was like a M.A.S.H. unit. There were four or five guys with IVs dripping, but all of those guys came out and competed like son-of-a-guns. They didn’t let that stop them.”

Jackson was mesmerizing, especially from long range where he connected on 9 of 14 3-pointers, including five in row during one stretch of the second half.

“I thought I would get a lot more tired than I did,” Jackson said. “I was feeling it tonight. It was one of those nights.”

Few blamed his defense.

“That’s all we talked about all week,” he said of Jackson, “and for him to make nine 3s after we told our guys he couldn’t get any looks - that, right there, sums up where we’re at.

“We spent three days talking about defending him and not giving him a look at any 3s and yet he didn’t hit any off the bounce. That shows how horrible we were out there.

“Hopefully we’ll get through this and be better because of it,” Few said. “But this is not acceptable in any way, shape or form - neither the mental nor the physical effort.”

Boise State 94, Gonzaga 69

Gonzaga (5-2) - Spink 2-5 4-6 8, Calvary 8-13 3-5 19, Stepp 2-9 3-4 8, Bankhead 1-4 0-1 3, Reason 1-3 2-2 4, Williams 0-0 1-2 1, Hernandez 1-2 2-6 5, Tricco 4-8 2-2 13, Gourde 1-3 0-0 2, Violette 2-4 1-2 6, Sherrell 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 22-52 18-30 69.

Boise State (6-2) - Woods 9-13 2-2 22, Armstrong 3-6 4-4 10, Tillman 4-6 5-5 13, Skiffer 0-0 0-0 0, Nabors 0-6 1-2 1, DeFares 0-0 0-0 0, Hordemann 3-6 3-4 9, Jackson 10-18 0-1 29, Morgan 4-5 2-2 10, Gainous 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 33-60 17-20 94.

Halftime-Boise State 44, Gonzaga 33. 3-Point goals- Gonzaga 7-21 (Tricco 3-6, Hernandez 1-1, Violette 1-2, Bankhead 1-4, Stepp 1-7, Calvary 0-1), Boise State 11-22 (Jackson 9-14, Woods 2-2, Armstrong 0-2, Nabors 0-2, Hordemann 0-2). Fouled out-Spink. Rebounds-Gonzaga 33 (Calvary 8), Boise State 31 (Tillman 7). Assists-Gonzaga 11 (Bankhead 3), Boise State 23 (Nabors 7). Total fouls-Gonzaga 19, Boise State 23. Technicals-Gonzaga coach Few. A-8,879.