Turiaf’s 40 points tip scale
Guarding Gonzaga’s Ronny Turiaf can be hazardous to your playing time, as well as your ego.
Just ask Idaho’s Mike Kale, who was assigned that thankless task Wednesday night at the McCarthey Athletic Center and fouled out after logging only 7 minutes on the court.
Several of Kale’s teammates also took a shot at reining in Gonzaga’s 6-foot-10 senior forward. And while none suffered the same foul fate as Kale, all failed miserably as Turiaf went off for a career-high 40 points and pulled down 11 rebounds in leading the Zags to an 88-74 non-conference win over the Vandals in front of a sellout crowd of 6,000.
The win was the third in a row for the Bulldogs (3-0), who needed every point and rebound Turiaf provided in posting the 15th double-double of his career.
Idaho (0-4), showing no signs of the fatigue that was so apparent in last weekend’s Boise State Invitational, hung with the 24th-ranked Zags for the better part of 35 minutes and was within 64-61 midway through the second half.
The Vandals, who got a career-high 23 points from senior forward Dandrick Jones, stayed close by bombing away relentlessly – and with a great deal of success – from long range. They made 11 3-pointers, but couldn’t match the inside muscle and finesse of Turiaf, who made 13 of 18 basket tries and 14 of 15 free throws to become the first Bulldog to score 40 points since Jim McPhee lit up Loyola Marymount for 41 on Jan. 27, 1990.
Sophomore forward Adam Morrison finished with 13 points for GU, which must now travel to Indianapolis for a Saturday showdown against No. 5-ranked Illinois in the Wooden Tradition in Conseco Fieldhouse.
Derek Raivio and Sean Mallon each added 11 points for the Bulldogs, who shot 56.4 percent from the field, but made only four of 13 3-point tries. The Zags also benefited from the debut of J.P. Batista, who scored four points and pulled down a pair of rebounds in limited playing time.
Idaho, which shot 47.3 percent from the field despite missing several shots in the closing minutes in a vain attempt to reel in the Bulldogs, got 16 points from Dillon Higdon and 12 from freshman point guard Jerod Hayes.
Batista, a 6-foot-9, 269-pound center and first-year transfer from Barton County (Kan.) Junior College, was playing his first game for GU after serving two games of a three-game suspension handed down by the NCAA after it was determined that his junior college coach sent him to a summer basketball camp.
The suspension was shortened after Gonzaga officials appealed the original verdict.
Batista made his first appearance with 14:34 left in the half and was greeted by a polite round of applause from a rather subdued Thanksgiving Eve crowd that was short of students.
But those in attendance warmed considerably to a couple of plays that helped the Bulldogs build a 45-36 halftime lead.
The first came with just over 7 1/2 minutes left in the period when Pierre Marie Altidor-Cespedes, a 6-1 freshman guard, blew around a Vandals defender on the baseline and threw down a two-handed dunk.
The other came courtesy of Turiaf, who picked up a loose ball that was saved from going out of bounds by a couple of hustling UI players directly under his own basket and scored on a monster jam that put the Bulldogs up 43-34 with 1:03 left in the half.
Turiaf finished the half with 21 points on 8-of-10 shooting. He was a perfect 5 for 5 from the foul line and pulled down five rebounds. Raivio added nine points, four assists and three rebounds, despite getting into early foul trouble that seemed to temper his aggressiveness.
It looked like the Zags, who finished the half with only one turnover, might have an 11-point lead at intermission when Batista tipped in a Turiaf miss just as the buzzer sounded. The officials originally called the basket good, but waved it off after checking a video replay at the scorer’s table.
Idaho, which had no answer for Turiaf inside, got 14 first-half points from Jones.