Zags pass test
The Gonzaga Bulldogs passed one last final exam Saturday night, but not before the reunited “Big Three” of Adam Morrison, Derek Raivio and J.P. Batista did some late-game basket cramming.
With the scholastic segment of finals week finally in their rearview mirror, the 10th-ranked Zags overcame some shabby ball-handling, suspect free-throw shooting and a career-high 35-point scoring outburst by Virginia’s Sean Singletary to turn back the Cavaliers 80-69 in sold-out McCarthey Athletic Center.
The win, witnessed by a semester-break crowd of 6,000, ran GU’s home-court winning streak to 29 – the second-longest in the nation – and raised the Bulldogs’ all-time record against Atlantic Coast Conference opponents to 7-1.
“We’re never great after finals,” coach Mark Few admitted after watching his Bulldogs (7-2) battle back from a six-point deficit midway through the second half to trip the Cavs (3-4). “But that’s still a great win over an ACC school.”
Morrison, Raivio and Batista combined for 62 points and 17 rebounds. They scored 23 of the Zags’ final 29 points after Virginia had matched its biggest lead of the game at 57-51 when Singletary made the second of two free throws with 11:17 remaining.
Morrison finished with 27 points. Raivio, who missed the last two games with a bruised back and hip, celebrated his return with 18, and Batista added 17. In addition, the Bulldogs got a brief first-half injection of energy from senior forward Erroll Knight, who made his season debut after missing the first eight games with soreness and infection in his left knee.
Knight, who was cleared to play following Saturday morning’s shoot-around, played less than 2 minutes but managed to make a quick steal and create general chaos on the defensive end of the court.
It was the return of Raivio, however, that meant the most on this night.
The 6-foot-3 junior saw his consecutive free-throw streak end at 20 when he clanked the first of two foul shots with just more than 5 minutes left in the game, but managed to bury 5 of 10 3-point tries. He also added five rebounds, four assists and a steal in the 37 minutes he was on the floor.
“He’s still not 100 percent,” Few said, “but having him out there knocking down shots really opened things up for us. And (having him) running the point without turning it over really helped, too.
“Derek has a great sense of understanding of our break and our system, as well as being a terrific shooter, who really spreads the defense out. He makes all the difference in the world – especially when you’re struggling to score baskets or you need to jump-start a run. Plus, he’s just very steady out there.”
Raivio said he felt confident heading into the game, thanks to a good week of practice.
“I’m almost there,” he said. “My shot felt good, but the hardest thing is getting up to game speed and back to game condition. I got winded out there early and had to get subbed out, but after that I felt fine.”
Morrison, after getting few touches and scoring only three points in the first 10 minutes of the game, finished the first half with nine points and added 18 more in the second. The 6-8 junior scored 11 in the final 11 minutes to fuel GU’s big closing run.
“We were just trying to keep a body on him – keep somebody in front of him, show other bodies when he tried to make a move and keep him out of the point,” first-year Virginia coach Dave Leitao said of his team’s early defensive success against the Zags’ scoring leader. “He’s an extremely smart player who draws fouls.”
Morrison was also in the middle of a late-game incident that resulted in an intentional technical foul being called on the Cavaliers’ J.R. Reynolds.
Immediately following a Raivio 3-pointer that gave GU a 67-64 lead with 5:24 left, Morrison and Reynolds, who had been jawing at each other most of the night, got tangled up battling for rebounding position.
According to Morrison, Reynolds “swung me round, kind of,” which was enough to prompt the intentional technical call that resulted in Raivio making 1 of 2 free throws and Morrison doing the same on the Zags’ ensuing possession.
The Zags then outscored the Cavaliers 11-5 the rest of the way to make the final score deceptively lopsided.
“We were just talking trash back and forth,” Morrison said, when asked what might have led up the incident. “That’s how I’ve always played, and that’s the way I like to play. If somebody wants to talk trash to me, I’m going to say something back. … It gets you a little more fired up and gets you going a little bit, and this time I think it played to our advantage.”
GU needed every advantage it could get to offset the stirring shooting performance of Singletary, a sophomore guard, who made 11 of 20 basket tries – including 4 of 9 3-pointers.
“He’s an amazing player,” Few said of Singletary, who single-handedly outscored GU 13-5 during a 3-minute first-half stretch, “and we knew that coming in. But we let him get going a little bit.”
Leitao, when asked about Singletary’s effort said, “Individual performances, when you lose, don’t mean a lot.”