Streaking Zags head to Loyola Marymount
LOS ANGELES – Gonzaga coach Mark Few insists that complacency should not be an issue when his Bulldogs venture into Gersten Pavilion tonight to take on another West Coast Conference bottom feeder in Loyola Marymount.
“We’re still in no position to be patting ourselves on the back,” Few said following Saturday’s 82-57 romp past Pepperdine, which gave the Zags (17-7 overall, 7-1 in the WCC) their fifth straight win and kept them perched atop the league standings, a game ahead of second-place Santa Clara.
“We’ve got to be hungry every time out. We’re young and still unproven at some spots, so these guys have to go out and make sure they’re ready to go every night. There’s no reason for us to be fat and happy. We’re still trying to build on some things here.”
The Bulldogs seem to have taken some big steps recently, knocking off 23rd-ranked Stanford on the road on Wednesday before easily disposing of Pepperdine to open its annual WCC road swing through the Los Angeles area. But Few and his players expect LMU (10-14, 2-6), under second-year coach Rodney Tention, to present some major problems when the two teams tip it off at 9.
“Loyola has always been a tough matchup for us,” Few said. “Rodney gets them to play so hard, and they really do a good job of climbing up into us.”
In addition, the Lions boast one of the league’s top low-post players in senior forward and WCC player-of-the-year candidate Matthew Knight, who is averaging a team-high 17 points and conference-best 8.3 rebounds per game. And they seem to have learned how to survive without senior guard Brandon Worthy, a returning all-WCC performer who suffered a season-ended knee injury 13 games into the season.
GU’s sophomore forward Josh Heytvelt, who lit up Pepperdine up for 27 points, 22 rebounds and six blocked shots, sees LMU presenting a much bigger challenge with Knight, a 6-foot-8, 240-pounder, and Marko Deric, a 6-9, 230-pound sophomore, on the low blocks.
“Knight’s a really good player,” said the 6-11 Heytvelt. “He’s got moves and he knows how to read defenses and stuff. He’s probably one of the best big guys in the conference right now and we have to concentrate on containing him. If we do, we should be OK.”
The Bulldogs breezed past the Lions 97-62 in the McCarthey Athletic Center earlier this year. It was the WCC opener for both teams, and GU used the 23-point, nine-rebound effort of senior forward Sean Mallon to fuel the rout. Senior guard Derek Raivio, the WCC’s top scorer with an average of 18.7 points per game, added 22 points in that victory as the Zags snapped a four-game losing streak.
Knight finished with 19 points and seven rebounds for LMU, which was playing only its fourth game without Worthy.
“They’ve gotten a couple of wins, now, after kind of settling in without Worthy,” Few noted of the Lions. “I’m sure we’ll get a great effort from them, and we’ll have to play very well to win.”
“They’re a scrappy bunch,” added Raivio. “They like to face guard a lot and cause a lot of havoc. The main thing is just to keep our composure and stay in an attack mode.”