Gonzaga notes: Bulldogs disrupt Toreros, pile up season-high 14 steals in blowout win

Ben Gregg’s defensive contributions might have flown under the radar in a game in which the junior scored a career-high 22 points.

That might have been true of Gonzaga’s defense as a whole in a game in which offense was the central storyline.

The Bulldogs made 10 3-pointers and shot 50% from the field while reaching the century mark for the fourth time this season in a 101-74 win over San Diego at McCarthey Athletic Center.

Buried somewhere beneath those numbers were Gonzaga’s season-high 14 steals and San Diego’s 19 turnovers, which matched the most the Toreros had committed in a game this season.

Gregg accounted for four of those – a personal best for the junior forward – and Ryan Nembhard matched his career high with four more steals to pace the Zags in their second West Coast Conference victory. GU’s Nolan Hickman had three steals and Dusty Stromer accounted for two.

“Well personally, I’m not known for my defense and getting four is kind of a shock to me as well,” Gregg said. “They kind of fell into my lap, to be honest. The first one definitely did. But Ryan’s a great defender, Nolan is, and like Nolan said, they were chasing around these quick guards all night. I know they’re tired, but they stayed with it. Doing their best to get in passing lanes and get deflections on loose balls and stuff like that.”

Turnovers piled up for the Toreros around the midway point of the first half. Gonzaga scored eight points off five USD turnovers during a 3-minute, 15-second stretch, allowing the Bulldogs to expand a three-point lead to 12 points with just over 11 minutes remaining.

Hickman was the primary defender on USD’s Deuce Turner with Nembhard picked up defensive duties on the high-scoring guard at various points of the game. Turner finished with a game-high 24 points on 8-of-15 shooting from the field, but the junior was responsible for nearly half of San Diego’s turnovers, committing six of the 14.

“We wanted to get up into them, especially in our own gym here,” Gonzaga coach Mark Few said. “I thought we decent job of that. I thought in stretches it was really good. Probably that first 8 minutes was really good, then we hit a little lull, then played really, really good.”

Ode to 1998-99

Gregg and fellow forward Anton Watson were part of a campaign to reveal the throwback uniforms Gonzaga wore during Saturday’s game as an homage to the school’s 1998-99 Elite Eight team.

The Zags players wore the royal blue jerseys and shorts in a uniform reveal video shared on Gonzaga’s social media accounts Wednesday afternoon. The school’s creative team shot the video more than a month ago, so Gregg, Watson and others who knew about the uniforms had to keep a secret until Friday’s announcement.

“These are sweet,” Gregg said. “We did it like a month ago, too, so everybody did a good job keeping it under wraps. That was like FBI stuff going on. Nobody was able to see them, so it was pretty cool.”

The old-school uniforms seemed to be a hit among GU fans and gained a stamp of approval from Few, who was a top assistant to Dan Monson in 1998-99 before taking over as Zags head coach the following season when Monson accepted the job at Minnesota.

“They did a nice job of them, I’ll give you that,” Few said. “They did kind of look like those ones we played all the way to the Elite Eight in, so it was great of Nike to do that and yeah, I thought they looked sharp.”

Breaking ground

In 25 seasons under Few, the Zags have accumulated all sorts of program firsts. There was another one Saturday, although it was completely unrelated to anything the Bulldogs or their Hall of Fame coach did.

Crystal Hogan, one of the three referees assigned to the WCC contest, became the first female to officiate a men’s game at McCarthey Athletic Center, working alongside Gregory Nixon and Tim Marion.

“Well, best thing an official can do is you don’t notice them, and she did great,” Few said. “She made the calls and she was great.”

In 2018, Hogan reportedly became the first woman to officiate an NCAA Division I men’s basketball game. The 47-year-old was raised in Compton, California, and was recruited to play college basketball at Long Beach State.