GU continues unlikely streak against Huskies

The likelies and sure bets were but a few Wednesday night at the McCarthey Athletic Center.

For certain, the Kennel Club would pick out a patsy on the opposing team to heckle mercilessly – in this case Washington’s Mike Jensen, if for no other reason than his relative clunkiness.

Absolutely, this edition of the Huskies would be the biggest threat to Gonzaga’s uncanny dominance in this series, which some day may actually amount to a real college basketball rivalry if UW manages to win one again.

Surely the scoreboard “over” should be in the 180s, given the Husky mandate to push the pace and the Zags’ defensive, uh, issues to this point of the season.

Most of all, it was impossible to imagine that Nate Robinson wasn’t going to be the best guard on the floor.

Well, condolences if you included that last one in your parlay.

Not that Washington’s lead hound was a mutt out there, by any stretch.

But he was no Derek Raivio.

And in foiling the Huskies one more time – 99-87, to the delight of the usual 6,000 dementos who got a rare chance to chant “Over-ra-ted!” in their own house at the 14th-ranked Dawgs – the Bulldogs were nothing like the beaten down souls who staggered home last weekend after absorbing some painful noogies from the University of Illinois.

That team was Dr. Jekyll.

This one was Mr. Zag.

This one held up smashingly against UW’s perimeter pressure, which is as snug to the skin as a tattoo. This one attacked the rim not just with confidence, but with faith. This one weathered any hint of a Huskies rally, pursued every loose ball, knocked down every necessary shot.

And the poster children for this latent resiliency were two tender guards – Raivio and freshman Pierre Marie Altidor-Cespedes – who nearly everyone assumed would be as lost as a liberal on AM radio.

“Maybe this will show all the people around town that (Raivio’s) going to be a great fit,” teammate Adam Morrison said. “All summer you’d hear, ‘What’s the point guard situation going to be?’ I’d tell them, ‘Derek’s fine.’ I’ve known all along he could play like that, and it was good he could show it and prove some people wrong.”

It was fitting enough, then, that Raivio spooned in what was more or less the deciding dirt on UW’s grave – a daggerish 3-pointer with just more than 5 minutes to play, after Ronny Turiaf had punched an offensive rebound back into play. That was the last of Raivio’s five 3s in a shooting exhibition that rivaled the best moments of his point guard elders – Matt Santangelo, Dan Dickau and Blake Stepp, under whom he studied a year ago.

Not that it stopped with shooting. Raivio’s line included eight assists, four steals and not a single turnover in 38 minutes. Indeed, the trio which shared the job of bringing the ball up the floor and initiating offense – Raivio, Altidor-Cespedes and Morrison – had but one turnover among them.

“I don’t think you’ll see a guard go through a game against (UW) all year without a turnover,” offered Gonzaga coach Mark Few.

Nor is it likely you’ll see Robinson as invisible as he was when the game needed to be won, and for that you can credit the defensive stickiness of Altidor-Cespedes, who was drawn aside by Morrison at a UW timeout with 5:50 left and told, “Don’t let Nate have an open shot.”

He didn’t. Never let it be said that the new kid isn’t coachable.

Or any of the Zags, for that matter.

The Illinois game seemed like less of a debacle Wednesday after seeing the Illini undress No. 1 Wake Forest on the tube by 18 points, but it will never seem like anything less to Gonzaga.

“We were disgusted after that game,” Raivio said. “We came out flat, with no heart – we just weren’t tough. After the game, the coaches got into us pretty hard and rightfully so. And I took it personally because I knew I could play a lot better than that.”

Publicly, Few pointed out that better and more experienced Gonzaga teams had suffered setbacks just as unsightly, but privately he warred against some doubts.

“It was an abomination – our effort, our focus, our lack of competitive spirit,” he said. “That’s what makes your gut churn for 72 hours. If your team doesn’t show that, it doesn’t matter what it’s doing.

“We just didn’t show any ‘Zag’ qualities – and I know that might sound corny. Today I drew hearts on the bulletin board and told them, ‘If you don’t do anything else, just play with this.’ “

That heart showed up in subtle ways. Like UW sharpshooter Tre Simmons, Gonzaga forward Sean Mallon was saddled with early foul trouble. Unlike Simmons, who finished with six indifferent points, Mallon fought through to score 16 in 20 minutes – including a key putback and four free throws in the final 2 1/2 minutes.

And Turiaf, who had but a handful of offensive touches in the first half as UW disrupted the offensive flow, found other ways to help out – such as the all-will rebound to set up Raivio’s 3 (one of 13 boards), and the deflection that caused the Huskies turnover that preceded it. And still he finished with 23 points.

“I’m sure he was frustrated a little bit because he was sealing really well in the low post,” Few said, “but I don’t know if he understands what the people on the perimeter were experiencing with guys climbing in their shorts.”

Well, he experiences that sort of thing often enough himself, so it’s likely he does. What he doesn’t understand – and, as a senior, will never have to, is losing to Washington.

“I don’t think we are in their heads,” Turiaf said. “Maybe you should ask them and they would tell you yes, but I just think we play hard-nosed basketball against the Huskies.

“Today we wanted a piece of them pretty bad, for sure. We wanted the right of being state champions. But it feels good to play so hard against them, knowing they want a piece of us as much as we want a piece of them. And it feels really good to say we beat them seven straight times.”

That’s pretty close to a sure thing.