Morrison, Bulldogs persevere

SAN FRANCISCO – All of the junk defenses, double teams and constant bumping, clutching and grabbing have worn a bit on Gonzaga’s Adam Morrison this season.

But the Bulldogs’ 6-foot-8 junior shooting guard found himself feeling young again Monday evening after tossing in 41 points to lead GU to a difficult 84-75 West Coast Conference win over San Francisco.

“I just kept feeling it and feeling it,” the irrepressible Morrison explained after knocking down 14 of 23 field goal tries – including 5 of 7 3-pointers – to help put away the stubborn Dons in front of a fire marshal’s nightmare crowd that numbered well over War Memorial Gymnasium’s listed capacity of 5,300.

“I felt like I was in high school again.”

Morrison also finished a perfect 8 for 8 from the foul line and reeled in nine rebounds for the seventh-ranked Zags (16-3 overall, 6-0 in the WCC), who maintained their one-game lead over Loyola Marymount in the conference standings.

“He’s just got a knack for hitting closely guarded shots,” GU coach Mark Few said of Morrison, the nation’s leading Division I scorer. “And there aren’t many players who can do that.”

Morrison bounced back in a big way after scoring a season-low 16 points in Saturday’s 64-64 road win over San Diego and bumped his scoring average back to 28.3 points per game.

His electrifying exhibition, which included all makes and models of shots from all ranges and angles, had the crowd – and even some of USF’s overmatched defenders – mesmerized.

And it drew unbridled praise from USF point guard Armondo Surratt, who had a pretty good night, himself, scoring a career-high 30 points for the Dons (7-11, 3-2).

“I can’t even explain him,” Surratt, a first-year transfer from Miami, said of Morrison. “He’s scary. That’s all I can say.”

But even with Morrison’s big effort, which included 26 first-half points that helped GU to a 15-point first-half lead, the Bulldogs eventually needed some help from other sources to put away USF.

And they got it from J.P. Batista and Derek Raivio, who combined for 22 second-half points to bring that Zags back from a short-lived 54-53 deficit with a little over 12 1/2 minutes left in the game.

Batista had 20 points and a game-high 13 rebounds to post the 11th double-double of his career, and Raivio, after a horrible start that included four early turnovers, finally settled down, starting hitting some perimeter shots and finished with 12 points.

“I cooled off a little in the second half,” admitted Morrison, who missed his first shot of the game and then drained nine in row, including five from 3-point range. “But other guys on this team started showing up.

“It was good to see them start hitting some shots and making some plays.”

Especially with all of the trouble the Zags were having trying to deal with USF’s speed.

The Dons used an aggressive, trapping defense to force the Bulldogs into 20 turnovers – 15 of which came in the ragged first half – and hurried shots outside of their half-court offensive scheme most of the game. In addition, they put the transition heat on the Bulldogs’ defense early in the game and kept it turned up for 40 minutes.

“We survived a crazy game,” Few said. “I thought we showed toughness and poise in the second half and were able to dig one out.”

But Few went on to admit his team played frantic at times – especially in the first half.

“I thought USF played really, really hard,” he said. “We were doing things I’ve never seen our guys do – making some crazy non-Gonzaga decisions.”

With the Dons seemingly unable to deal with Morrison in the early going, GU appeared to be on its way to an easy win. The Bulldogs went up 41-26 on a free throw by Batista with 5:54 left in the opening half, but then hit a scoring drought that spanned over 3 1/2 minutes and let USF up for air.

The Zags also went over 5 minutes without a field goal in the latter stages of the half and saw their once-comfortable lead shrink to 45-40 at intermission when USF scored at the buzzer off the last of the GU’s 15 first-half turnovers.

They finished strong, however, outscoring the Dons 9-5 over the final 90 seconds of the game, with Morrison, Batista and Raivio all contributing key free throws.

GU returns to the McCarthey Athletic Center, where it will put its 32-game home winning streak on the line against Portland at 5 p.m. on Saturday.