GU’s balancing act

Gonzaga coach Mark Few admitted he wasn’t sure what to expect from his young, inexperienced men’s basketball team heading into Wednesday night’s exhibition opener.

So he found himself neither elated nor dismayed by the energetic, but uneven, performance his Bulldogs turned in during an 89-53 rout of Augustana College.

“I knew it was going to be kind of crazy,” Few said, after watching sophomore forward Josh Heytvelt throw in a game-high 23 points – including a couple of thunder dunks – to delight a sellout McCarthey Athletic Center crowd of 6,000 and lead the Zags to an easy win.

“It’s a different team with a different look, and we’ve got a long way to go,” he added. “But I thought we played hard, and that’s all we wanted them to do.”

Eleven players saw action for the Bulldogs and all scored, giving a good indication that this year’s team will be much more balanced on offense than last year’s, which relied heavily on the 1-2 punch of Adam Morrison and J.P. Batista.

Senior Derek Raivio, who played most the game at the shooting guard spot, knocked down 4 of 6 3-point tries and finished with 16 points, while sophomore guard Jeremy Pargo, who started at the point, added 13, along with five assists and four steals.

GU fans also got a prolonged look at first-year junior college transfer Abdullahi Kuso, a 6-foot-9 junior forward, who finished with seven points and two rebounds, and freshman guard Matt Bouldin, who contributed five points, four rebounds and a couple of assists.

But perhaps the most encouraging part of GU’s effort was the way it flew around on defense and disrupted nearly everything the Division II Vikings tried to do on offense.

Even with sophomore wing and shutdown defender Larry Gurganious watching from the bench with a stress reaction in a lower vertebra – an injury that could sideline him for four to six weeks – the Bulldogs managed to come up with 15 steals.

The primary disrupter was junior guard Pierre Marie Altidor-Cespedes, who came off the bench to collect three steals and block a couple of shots.

“That needs to be what we do, and that’s what we’re striving to try to get them to do,” Few said of his team’s aggressive defensive play. “I thought Pierre came in and really changed the game.

“He did a great job of just (applying) constant pressure out there and I kind of think that wore them down.”

Augustana, which got 14 points and five rebounds from senior forward Nick Olson, hung around for about 12 minutes before a 14-0 run gave GU a 36-22 lead with just 2 minutes left in the first half. The Bulldogs then cranked up the defensive pressure following intermission and went on another 17-9 run that sealed the deal.

“It definitely felt good,” said Heytvelt, who made 10 of his 18 field-goal tries and also pulled down eight rebounds. “We needed to fix some things from the first half to the second half, and we did.

“We stepped up our defense, started executing a little bit better on offense and put together a pretty good second half. We still have some things to work on, but it was a good experience for everybody.”

Heytvelt added that defense has been a point of emphasis during preseason workouts this fall.

“We’re long, athletic and quick,” he said, “and that’s the way we’re going to beat teams this year is to pressure the ball so they can’t do anything on offense.”

Few said Gurganious, who has been bothered by back problems throughout fall camp, had a MRI taken on his back earlier this week and learned of the severity of the problem.

The Bulldogs, who open the regular season at home against Eastern Washington University on Nov. 10, will play their final exhibition game against Warner Pacific on Saturday night.

Bulldogs 89, Vikings 53

Percentages: FG .328, FT .571. 3-Point Goals: 7-26, .269 (Olson 2-5, Blank 0-3, Ryan 1-3, Thomas 0-2, Hartzell 1-5, Krogman 1-3, Thomas 0-1). Team Rebounds: 38. Blocked Shots: 3 (Paulson 2, Hartzell). Turnovers: 22 (Dalton 5, Paulson 3, Blank 3, Olson 2, Thomas 2, Krogman 2, Verdouw 2, Ryan, Foster, Hartzell). Steals: 2 (Olson, Verdouw). Technical Fouls: None.

Percentages: FG .449, FT .680. 3-Point Goals: 10-27, .370 (Mallon 1-2, Heytvelt 1-5, Pargo 1-3, Raivio 4-6, Pendergraft 1-2, Altidor-Cespedes 1-4, Mast 0-2, Bouldin 1-3). Team Rebounds: 49. Blocked Shots: 7 (Heytvelt 2, Altidor-Cespedes 2, Foster 2, Kuso 1). Turnovers: 13 (Altidor-Cespedes 3, Mallon2, Heytvelt 2, Pargo, Raivio, Pendergraft, Bouldin, Kuso, Foster ). Steals: 15 (Pargo 4, Raivio 4, Altidor-Cespedes 3, Heytvelt, Kuso, Foster). Technical Fouls: None.

Halftime–Gonzaga 44, Augustana 28. A–6000.