Gonzaga rewind: Bulldogs struggle in Braden Huff’s minutes, Gaels lifted by Joshua Jefferson in 64-62 win

Another day, another Quad 1 opportunity squandered by Gonzaga.

Coming off a 64-62 loss to Saint Mary’s on Saturday, the Bulldogs no longer control their own destiny when it comes to the West Coast Conference regular-season championship.

More concerning at this point is Gonzaga’s NCAA Tournament resume, which didn’t get any stronger on Saturday as the Bulldogs fell to 0-5 in Quad 1 games with their first home loss to Saint Mary’s since 2018.

“It’s not fun, obviously,” Gonzaga coach Mark Few said. “You know that, you can feel that, sense it. Everybody feels it. That’s the beauty of athletics, we’ve got another one coming in a couple days and you’ve got to get geared up.”

There should be plenty of time to discuss Gonzaga’s case for an at-large NCAA berth, especially after a massive nonconference game next Saturday at No. 10 Kentucky, but for the time being we’ll look back at a few of the key plays and players from Saturday’s WCC loss to Saint Mary’s.

Tough stretch for Huff

The decisive run for Saint Mary’s started at the 5-minute, 8-second mark and culminated with 2:37 remaining. The Gaels were trailing 55-52 when it started and leading 60-55 when it ended.

It wasn’t a coincidence that an 8-0 Saint Mary’s spurt coincided with Ike’s stint on the bench late in the game.

The Gonzaga forward was subbed out after his fourth foul with 5:17 remaining, then had to watch the Gaels take advantage of a more favorable matchup against the player who replaced him, redshirt freshman Braden Huff.

On the first possession without Ike, Mitchell Saxen went right to work against the Gonzaga forward, scoring off the glass. Huff sent Saxen to the free-throw line on the Gaels’ next trip down, then misfired on a 3-pointer that would’ve given the Zags a three-point lead.

“They were able to get on a little run when we took Graham out of there,” Few said. “That was kind of the big key. We tried to protect him at four (fouls) and they went right at us, got some baskets that kind of ended up providing the separation.”

Aidan Mahaney, the Gaels’ 6-foot-3 sophomore guard, drew Huff on a switch, drove to the basket and finished over the 6-foot-10 forward to give Saint Mary’s a 57-55 lead. Huff was matched up against Jefferson when the Gaels’ forward drilled the 3-pointer that extended the lead to 60-55 with 2:37 to play.

“As a competitor, you always want to help your team out and be a part of the game,” Ike said. “It was definitely frustrating, got in a little foul trouble at the end. Four in the second half I think.

“It’s tough. You’ve got to control what you can control.”

Emerging Gaels

Jefferson played 47 total minutes in three games against Gonzaga last season, but Randy Bennett couldn’t afford to take the sophomore forward off the floor in his fourth career game against the Bulldogs.

The Las Vegas native knocked down a crucial 3-pointer inside the final three minutes and came up with a handful of winning plays in key moments throughout Saturday’s game.

After the Gaels went more than six minutes without a made shot to open the game, Jefferson was responsible for their first two field goals, scoring on a layup and jumper to trim Gonzaga’s early lead down to seven points.

Jefferson finished with 16 points and 11 rebounds for his fourth double-double this season while Augustas Marciulionis, another Gael who’d yet to reach double figures in a game against Gonzaga, scored 11 points to go with four assists and three rebounds.

“It’s funny, some of those guys were just not very good early and now they’re shooting the ball so much better,” Few said. “Jefferson’s made a huge jump in his game, obviously Marciulionis, you can see how good he is and how crafty he is, how strong he is, how tough he is. Mahaney I think was struggling a bit from 3 coming into this. … But yeah, obviously getting scoring out of Jefferson helps a lot.”

Jefferson, a 6-foot-8, 220-pound forward who attended the same high school in Vegas as former GU standout Julian Strawther, had only made a 3-pointer in just eight games prior to Saturday and opened the season 2 of 27 from behind the arc.

“Those guys from back when we started the year, those guys weren’t there yet,” Bennett said of Jefferson and Marciulionis. “I tried to explain that to people, they had never started, they had never been key players. That position for us is really important, so (Jefferson) developed into that pretty quickly.”

Jefferson was matched up with Gonzaga’s defensive ace, Anton Watson, for much of the game. The forwards essentially canceled each other out Saturday with Watson scoring 16 points and hauling down 10 rebounds.

“It’s taken Jefferson a little more time, but he’s gotten a little better and shooting the ball well,” Bennett said. “He had a good matchup. I think Watson’s as good as anybody in the league. So for him to be able to hold his own on that is a big step. I’d say Watson’s the best one at that position in our league.”

Upon further review

Officiating decisions, particularly in the later stages of Saturday’s game, irked the home crowd, at one point prompting Gonzaga students to toss plastic bottles, rally towels and other items onto the court.

Referees Randy McCall, Nate Harris and Mike Littlewood spent plenty of time at the scorers table down the stretch reviewing Marciulionis’ 3-pointer at the end of the shot clock with under a minute remaining, as well as Watson’s foul on Saxen that came during an end-of-clock situation.

“It just seems like we’re having more and more (reviews),” Few said. “They’re just trying to get it right and that’s what you want. You want them to get it right. That’s a hard game to officiate right there. It’s two teams going at it, they’re physical, I thought they did a nice job of calling the ones they needed to call and letting the guys play.”

A missed out-of-bounds call on Mahaney allowed Saint Mary’s to continue the possession that resulted in Marciulionis’ 3-pointer.

Referees returned to the scorers table to confirm Marciulionis got his shot off in time but told Few the out-of-bounds play was unreviewable.

Despite pleas from the Gaels’ coach, officials elected not to assess a technical foul on Gonzaga’s crowd for throwing things onto the court.

“It was a little slower at the end,” said Ike, who couldn’t recall being part of a game with more reviews than Saturday’s. “I don’t know if I have, but sometimes it just doesn’t go your way.”