Two much to handle
With Derek Raivio playing like himself again and Ronny Turiaf making another loud stretch-run statement, 13th-ranked Gonzaga was simply too much for San Diego to deal with Thursday night at the McCarthey Athletic Center.
Raivio, coming off a 1-for-9 shooting nightmare in last Saturday’s difficult three-point road win over Loyola Marymount, erupted for a game-high 29 points against the Toreros. Turiaf added a 15-point, 13-rebound double-double – the 23rd of his career – as the Bulldogs stormed to a 90-73 West Coast Conference basketball win in front of another sellout crowd of 6,000.
The victory, the seventh in a row for the conference-leading Zags (20-4 overall, 10-2 in the WCC), clinched at least a second-place finish in the WCC regular-season standings and a bye into the semifinals of the conference tournament, which opens in Santa Clara, Calif., on March 4. It also gave the Bulldogs their eighth consecutive 20-win season.
With former GU All-American point guard Dan Dickau watching from the stands, the Zags used an eight-point spurt in the final 51 seconds of the first half to distance themselves from the Toreros (13-11, 5-6), and they never let off the gas.
“Bottom line, we got beat by a better team,” USD coach Brad Holland said.
Raivio, the Bulldogs’ 6-foot-3 sophomore point guard, made 6 of 10 field-goal tries – including 5 of 6 on 3-pointers – and was 12 for 12 from the foul line. He also handed out seven assists and committed only one turnover.
“He’s the key to their team,” Holland said of Raivio. “Obviously, they have outstanding inside people – especially Turiaf, but he’s the key, no doubt about it. When he’s scoring and making 3s like that, he opens everything up for them.”
“He’s had a lot of big games for us this year,” GU coach Mark Few said of Raivio, who came in averaging 13.1 points and a WCC-best 5.0 assists per game. “Seven assists, one turnover, and he knocked down some big 3s as well as those free throws.”
Two of Raivio’s 3-pointers came in the final minute of the first half when the Zags scored eight unanswered points to increase their lead to 42-32. Raivio started the run by knocking down a jumper from the top of the key and, following a San Diego timeout, canned another on the heels of an Erroll Knight steal.
Then, after the Toreros rushed a shot with 14 seconds left in the period, the Bulldogs grabbed the rebound and scored one last basket on a baseline jumper by Adam Morrison.
“That’s not the way you want to finish a half,” Holland said. “We turned the ball over on a defensive trap, they come down and hit a 3 and then we shot the ball too quickly instead of running the clock out
“That’s on us. That’s just not taking care of business.”
Raivio, who made four straight free throws after back-to-back technical fouls were called on USD’s Corey Belser and Holland with just less than 8 minutes left in the game, credited his big night to the work Turiaf, J.P. Batista and Sean Mallon did inside.
Batista finished with 19 points and five rebounds, while Mallon added 10 points and four assists in a reserve role.
“The first half, I had a lot of open looks because of Ronny,” Raivio explained. “He was drawing the double teams. It definitely helps when you’ve got Ronny, J.P, and Sean playing down there.”
Batista was also a beast on defense, helping limited Toreros scoring leader Brice Vounang to nine points – seven less than his average. Vounang, a 6-8, 250-pound senior center, has scored in double figures in every game this year, except the two he played against GU.
“J.P. does a good job on him, because he’s as strong as he is,” Few said when asked about the success his team has had in dealing with Vounang. “And our doubling helped, too. Ronny does a nice job of helping on that. He’s probably as good at doubling as anybody on our team.”
Turiaf gave most of the praise to Batista.
“He’s a great player,” he said of Vounang, who took only nine shots. “But when we have our big body, J.P. Batistaaaah … I mean, there’s nobody in the nation who can push J.P. around. So when you have J.P. pushing him off the block and the rest of us coming down to double, it’s hard.
“I know from people double teaming me. It’s not easy.”
The Toreros did what they could to help on Turiaf, too, but the 6-10 senior forward still managed to make 7 of 10 field goals.
“I think Ronny’s really rounding into the MVP of this league with the way he’s rebounding and scoring,” Few said after watching Turiaf put together his third consecutive double-double. “He’s back to playing the way he was early before he sprained his ankles. He’s attacking the basket, he’s pursuing rebounds outside of his area and he’s not worried about where he’s coming down.
“I think his confidence is back.”
The Bulldogs can clinch at least a tie for the WCC regular-season championship on Saturday when San Francisco visits the McCarthey Athletic Center for a 3 p.m. game that will be televised regionally by ABC.
A GU win, coupled with a loss by second-place Saint Mary’s, would give the Zags the title outright.
“We have a great opportunity on Saturday to win a league championship on our home floor,” Few said.