Zags soar
Battered, but far from beaten.
Gonzaga, which was hit recently with a wave of difficult news, learning that Josh Heytvelt and Steven Gray will have surgery within the next 48 hours and Theo Davis’ father is gravely ill in Toronto, relied on its considerable depth and the steady hands of guards Jeremy Pargo and Matt Bouldin to dismantle Montana 77-54 Sunday in front of a sellout crowd of 6,000 at the McCarthey Athletic Center.
“It’s way too early for this stuff to be happening,” said Bouldin, referring to the absence of one-fourth of the roster for No. 14 Gonzaga’s season opener. “We just have to deal with it and the team is doing a great job dealing with all the adversity.
“It’s good we’re as deep as we are. Imagine if we weren’t? We’d be in trouble right now.”
Much of the preseason talk centered on GU’s impressive depth and it came in handy against the Grizzlies (1-1) as freshman Austin Daye poured in 20 points in a memorable debut and Larry Gurganious contributed on both ends of the court. They’ll be counted on even more with GU’s extensive injury list. Heytvelt will miss four to six weeks because of a stress fracture in his right foot. The injury was originally thought to be a stress reaction, but “further review of the MRI” showed a stress fracture, head coach Mark Few said.
Gray has a broken wrist and will probably miss six weeks. Davis left the team Thursday to return home after his father suffered a stroke.
“All that depth, just poof, went like that,” Few said. “We handled it, but we’re not a deep team any more.”
GU controlled this one from the outset, scoring 11 second-chance points in the first seven minutes to build a 24-16 lead. Daye smoothly dropped in 12 points in 13 minutes as Gonzaga’s lead grew to 44-25 at half.
Pargo finished with 17 points, five assists and a soaring, one-handed dunk over 6-foot-11 freshman Brian Qvale that will probably be coming to a poster soon. Bouldin, playing four days after severely spraining his ankle, chipped in 11 first-half points before resting most of the second half.
“I haven’t seen that in practice, I haven’t seen that in a scrimmage,” Few said of the quality of GU’s overall play. “I guess there were flashes of it in the exhibition, but not many. I was very concerned coming into this game. We beat a really good team that I think will win their league and advance to the NCAA tournament. I thought our approach was terrific from 1 through 12.”
The Bulldogs’ defense took an outside-in approach, using tight pressure on the perimeter to stymie the Grizzlies’ offense. Montana forwards Jordan Hasquet and Andrew Strait, both returning All-Big Sky Conference players, combined for just 12 points on 4-of-18 shooting. Their touches were limited and the Grizzlies couldn’t counter from the outside, making just 5 of 22 3-pointers and shooting 30.9 percent overall.
“The way they came out and put so much pressure on the ball it just knocked us on our heels and our guys responded the wrong way, by giving in to it and trying to make plays off the dribble, which played right in their hands,” Grizzlies coach Wayne Tinkle said.
Few credited Pargo and Gurganious, who came off the bench to score 12 points and supply adhesive defense.
“Larry had them stretched out so much and Jeremy had them stretched out,” Few said. “Those passes were harder to find for their perimeters. I thought (Abdullahi) Kuso battled his tail off and Pendo (David Pendergraft) is always Pendo. Austin, for his size, really battled in there. It was a great job by all those guys.”
Montana hinted at a comeback early in the second half, pulling within 53-40, but Gurganious, Kuso, Micah Downs, Daye and Pargo scored in an 11-0 run that gave GU a comfortable 64-40 lead.
Daye missed his first two shots, but rebounded to finish 8 of 13, including 2 of 2 on 3s.
“I was getting down on myself, but the first thing my dad (former UCLA and NBA player Darren Daye) says is, ‘The next shot is going down,’ ” Daye said. “You have to think that way.”
Gonzaga entertains Idaho Tuesday at 5.