Zags want to do some trailblazing at Loyola
LOS ANGELES – Mark Few was asked earlier this week if he thought winning out would be enough to earn his Gonzaga Bulldogs the No. 1 seed in the upcoming West Coast Conference men’s basketball tournament.
It was a speculative question, based on the assumption that WCC co-leader Saint Mary’s, which has split its two games with the Zags, would also win out, thus bringing the league’s multilayered tie-breaker formula into play.
Few, however, refused to buy into any assumptions.
“The last thing on my mind is winning out,” he said. “We’ve got to win some road games. We haven’t proven we can go on the road and win two, yet. We haven’t shown we’re tough enough to win consistent on the road, and that’s what it comes down to.
“The last couple of trips, we’ve had a fairly superlative effort one night and then dropped off the next. It’s been the first game one time and the second game the other. Now we’re looking at our last chance to show we’re tough enough to sustain stuff on the road.”
Few’s “last chance” reference was to the Bulldogs’ on-going road swing into Southern California, where they put on one of their “fairly superlative efforts” in holding off the stubborn Pepperdine Waves, 82-75, in front of an overflow crowd of 3,250 in Firestone Fieldhouse.
Next up is Loyola Marymount, which will provide the opposition in tonight’s 6 p.m. matchup at the Lions’ Gersten Pavilion. This game, too, is a sellout. And with a Feb. 24 date with Portland as the only remaining road game on GU’s schedule, it offers the Bulldogs one last chance to prove it can win two straight on the road in the WCC.
“We’ve been struggling to get a road sweep, and this week is going to show us if we are a great team or not,” Bulldogs senior co-captain Ronny Turiaf said Thursday night, just moments after torching Pepperdine with a 20-point, 12-rebound double-double – the 21st of his career. “We’re going to have to come out, play hard and rebound the ball really well to get a W, because Loyola Marymount is a really good team.”
LMU (11-12 overall, 3-7 in the WCC) is coming off a disappointing 54-50 home loss to Portland on Thursday. The injury-plagued Waves shot a meager 29 percent (16 of 55) against the Pilots and made only 1 of 16 shots from 3-point range.
“This is the story of our season,” LMU coach Steve Aggers said afterward. “We play one good game, and then one bad game. We are an extremely inconsistent team.”
Which, in the wake of Thursday’s sorry shooting effort, would seem to suggest the Lions – and their fans – will have their collective roar back against Gonzaga tonight.
Adding to Few’s concerns is the recent return of LMU standouts Brandon Worthy and Daryl Pegram from knee injuries. Pegram played in the Lions’ 76-65 loss to GU in Spokane before hurting his knee, but Worthy, a 6-2 sophomore guard who is averaging 11.1 points per game and shooting 53.8 percent (49 of 91) from the field, was unavailable after undergoing surgery that cost him nine games.
“We didn’t play them with Brandon Worthy, who is arguably their best player,” Few said. “He’s a hard matchup, and this is always a really, really difficult game for us, anyway. Of all the teams that came to Spokane, they probably played us as well as anybody.
“Steve (Aggers) has seen us, he knows us and he’s even implemented a similar system. I think they execute better than anybody in our league, and probably use better patience than anybody in our league in sticking with their stuff. That’s why it’s so hard to shake them.”
The key to beating the Lions, Few said, is for his Zags to come out with the same aggressive approach and focus they showed against Pepperdine – and to sustain it for 40 minutes. If they don’t, this could turn into one last tepid road trip rather than the important sweep GU covets.
“Beating Loyola is the next step we have to take,” said Bulldogs point guard Derek Raivio, who scored 17 points and played all 40 minutes in Thursday’s win over Pepperdine. “Our coaches have stressed all week that this is a business trip, and we’re not done with business yet.”