GU streak: 50 & over

It became fairly apparent early on that Gonzaga University’s nation’s best home-court winning streak was history.

As early as Saturday, in fact.

That was when Josh Heytvelt, the Bulldogs’ leading rebounder and second-leading scorer, drew an indefinite suspension after being arrested the night before – along with freshman teammate Theo Davis – on drug possession charges.

The Zags survived the initial shock of losing their talented 6-foot-11 sophomore forward later that evening, knocking off visiting Saint Mary’s to extend their remarkable run of consecutive home wins to 50.

But it all came unraveled Monday evening when the Santa Clara Broncos blew into the McCarthey Athletic Center and slapped an 84-73 loss on the undermanned Bulldogs, silencing a sellout crowd of 6,000 and putting themselves in control of the West Coast Conference regular-season title chase.

Scott Dougherty scored a game-high 22 points, Brody Angley added 18 and former Shadle Park High School standout Danny Pariseau chipped in 14 – along with six assists – as the Broncos (19-7 overall, 9-2 in the WCC) broke their first-place tie with GU (18-9, 8-3) and took a one-game lead over the Zags in the conference standings with three league games remaining.

Gonzaga got 21 points – 19 of which came in the second half – from senior shooting guard Derek Raivio, and 20 from sophomore point guard Jeremy Pargo.

But it wasn’t enough to offset the absence of Heytvelt, a staggering start and some horrific free-throw shooting on the part of the Bulldogs, who finished a paltry 22 of 36 from the foul line.

In addition, GU shot just 38.2 percent (21 of 55) from the field and committed what coach Mark Few called “some bonehead fouls on 3-point shooters” down the stretch.

The loss not only snapped the Zags’ long home-court winning streak, but put the first blemish on their record in the 3-year-old McCarthey Center, where they are now 38-1.

“It’s a tough one,” Few said of the loss, which assured him of his first 10-loss season in his eight years as the Bulldogs’ head coach. “(The players) aren’t used to losing here. None of us are.”

Sean Mallon, a fifth-year senior forward who finished with 11 points and a game-high nine rebounds, admitted the loss hurt, but not so much because it ended the streak.

“The streak was great,” he said, “and I’m sure one day some of the guys who have played a lot of games here will look back on it with pride. But right now, it’s just a loss, and that’s how we have to look at it.

“We’re still in a league race, and we’re still trying to get into the (NCAA) tournament, so we’ve got to do everything we can to scratch and claw and get there. We can’t worry about the streak.”

Raivio, who fueled a big second-half comeback that fell just a bit short, said it hurt not having Heytvelt.

“But even with Josh not out there, this game was still winnable,” he added. “We missed a lot of free throws we usually make and some baskets didn’t go in.

“We came out a little lethargic in the first half, but if we can play like we did in the second, I don’t think too many teams in the country can beat us.”

Santa Clara, after building a 13-point halftime lead on some terrific outside shooting, seemed on the verge of blowing the Bulldogs out a little over 7 minutes into the second half. That was when Pariseau made a pair of free throws to cap a seemingly decisive 13-3 run that put Santa Clara up 57-38 with just under 13 minutes left in the game.

But a pair of buckets by Mallon, one of them a 3-pointer, and a bucket and two free throw by Pargo pulled the Zags back to within 62-48, which was when Raivio performed his heroics, scoring 15 straight points to slice SCU’s once-comfortable lead to 71-65.

That was as close as GU could get, however, as Pariseau and Dougherty nailed back-to-back 3-pointers to sap the Zags of their last breath.

Longtime SCU coach Dick Davey, who was making his last coaching appearance in Spokane after announcing earlier that he will retire at season’s end, credited some of his team’s quick start to luck.

“They wanted to help in the interior a little bit,” he explained of GU’s early defensive approach. “I think we did a good job of kicking balls out and finding guys who were open.

“And then, we were lucky. The ball goes in. If it doesn’t you’re playing from behind. It’s all about making baskets.”

GU opened the game in a funk, following a tasteful pre-game presentation to honor Davey’s many accomplishments and last coaching appearance in Spokane. The Bulldogs trailed 42-29 at intermission. The Zags made only 7 of 23 first-half shot attempts, and six of those makes were 3-pointers.

And they didn’t help themselves, either, from the foul line, where they misfired on 8 of 17 free throw tries.

Santa Clara started in a great way by knocking down seven of its first eight shots – the first three of which were 3-pointers – and raced to a quick 13-0 lead.

Gonzaga looked scattered in its half-court offense, missed its first five field-goal tries and spent the rest of the opening period playing catch-up.

The Bulldogs fell behind 26-11, matching the largest deficit they had faced during their home-court run, and weren’t able to string together enough stops to make any appreciable dent in the Broncos’ lead.

SCU did turn over the ball on four straight possessions during one two-minute stretch and GU capitalized on two of their miscues by dropping in a pair of 3-pointers to close to within 26-18.

The Zags launched a 6-2 run a couple minutes later, but could still get no closer than 31-24.

Elsewhere in the WCC

Johnny Dukes scored a career-high 21 points and had eight rebounds in San Francisco’s 76-69 win over Loyola Marymount in San Francisco.

Portland 55, Saint Mary’s 47: Ben Sullivan scored 15 points and Darren Cooper added 14 as the Pilots broke a four-game home losing streak.

San Diego 97, Pepperdine 85: Ross DeRogatis scored 25 points and Nir Cohen added a career-high 24 as the Toreros overcame a large first-half deficit.