Zags look to remain top dog

The Gonzaga Bulldogs, for the first time this season, will have first place in the West Coast Conference men’s basketball standings all to themselves when they entertain the University of San Diego in the McCarthey Athletic Center tonight at 9.

The Zags (14-7 overall, 5-1 in the WCC) took over sole possession of the conference lead by slapping down visiting San Francisco 72-56 on Saturday. But if recent history can be used as any kind of an accurate gauge, staying there won’t be easy.

USD (13-8, 3-3) played the Bulldogs as tough as any team in the WCC last season. The Toreros lost a 64-63 heartbreaker to the Zags at home on a late-game 3-pointer by Erroll Knight and then pushed them to overtime in the semifinals of the conference tournament before falling 96-94 in the McCarthey Center.

And 13th-year coach Brad Holland has seven letterwinners – including six with starting experience – back on his roster this year.

In addition, the Toreros have won 11 of their last 15 games and have an impressive 72-67 road win over the Pacific-10 Conference’s California Golden Bears on their resume.

“They’re a very dangerous team,” GU coach Mark Few said of USD following Saturday’s win over San Francisco. “They’re well-coached and hard to play. They always have been. And they won tonight (74-70 at Portland), so they’ll come in here with some momentum.”

The Toreros, who are 3-1 on the road against WCC opponents, are led offensively by 6-foot-7 sophomore forward Gyno Pomare, who is averaging 15.7 points per game. But they have three other players – senior guard Ross DeRogatis (14.6), sophomore guard Brandon Johnson (14.3) and senior center Nir Cohen (10.0) – also averaging double figures.

And despite not having a player on its roster over 6-8, USD’s average rebounding deficit is a mere one-tenth per game, thanks to some blue-collar board work by Pomare, who is averaging 8.4 rebounds per game.

Gonzaga’s players had yet to receive the scouting report on the Toreros on Saturday, but sophomore guard Jeremy Pargo said he remembered them from last year as being “pretty good defensively and being able to rebound pretty well.

“And they’ve got one guard (DeRogatis), who can really shoot it and another (Johnson), who can get to the basket,” added Pargo, who had 11 points and 11 assists against USF.

DeRogatis has launched a WCC-high 157 3-pointers and is shooting 36.3 percent from beyond the arc. And Johnson leads the league in assists with an average of 4.7 per game.

Still, Gonzaga comes in as a heavy favorite, having won a nation’s-best 48 consecutive home games, including 26 straight against WCC opponents.

The Zags have won 17 of their last 18 games against USD and have not lost to the Toreros at home since Feb, 17, 2000.