Gonzaga relies on late-game execution to withstand second-half flurry from Saint Mary’s in 74-58 win

The distinction is important. Second-ranked Gonzaga may have faced an unfamiliar and unusual situation down the stretch of Saturday’s game against No. 22 Saint Mary’s, but it wasn’t necessarily an uncomfortable one.

A GU team that’s zapped every West Coast Conference opponent to this point and won those games by an average margin of 29.6 points held just an eight-point lead with 3:08 left at McCarthey Athletic Center – the first time all season the Bulldogs weren’t leading by double figures inside the final five minutes of a WCC game and the first time they faced any true resistance in the second half since a Dec. 18 game against Texas Tech.

“I think we handled it really well,” Drew Timme said. “They’re a good team and we expected for them not to back down and it to be a close game. Throughout that whole huddle at that last meeting, I think it was a nine-, eight-point game, not one person was unconfident or nervous or nothing.”

After the Gaels’ Matthias Tass finished an uncontested dunk with 3:08 to play, closing what was once a 21-point deficit to 66-58, the Bulldogs didn’t let their WCC rival get any closer, ripping off an 8-0 run to finish off a 74-58 victory that improved Gonzaga’s overall record to 21-2 and the Bulldogs unbeaten mark in league play to 10-0.

GU needed the run to avoid what may have otherwise been a tense situation in the final three minutes at the Kennel, but it may also have long-term benefits for a team that expects to be playing in more tight games as the regular season winds down and the postseason approaches.

“It’s totally beneficial, yeah,” Bulldogs coach Mark Few said. “It’s exactly what we needed and we had to grind. It was a grinder game. So many of our games have been up and down and open and fast-paced. I assume as we move into late February here, the rest of our games will be like this. It’s kind of how it always goes.”

The Zags’ closing stretch was spurred by two momentum-crushing 3-pointers from sophomore wing Julian Strawther, who’d scored just five points through the game’s first 37 minutes.

The first came 20 seconds after Tass dunked to make it an eight-point game. The second arrived with less than a minute to play, closing the door on Saint Mary’s for the final time.

“I think everyone thought that was going in,” Timme said. “That’s just how good of a shooter he is, how much faith we have in him and then you have a guy like (Andrew Nembhard) who can really slow the game down and control the ball in late games and make the right plays and score.

“I have all the confidence in the world in us to take care of business down the line. I think it was a good test for us to face, especially before March.”

A Saint Mary’s team that began to discover some offensive flow and rhythm in the second half missed four consecutive shots and also coughed up a turnover in the final three minutes.

Nembhard, who sandwiched a layup between Strawther’s 3s, praised the Bulldogs’ execution during the final stretch – a period that’s normally reserved for GU’s reserves and walk-ons in larger blowouts.

“It was just stick to the plan, come down make plays and Julian came up big for us,” he said. “Not turning over the ball, ran a quick couple of ball screens, plays in the end that I think kind of worked for us down the stretch. So it was just about executing.

“Got some stops, got some buckets and we felt confident coming out of that last media timeout and did what we had to do.”