No. 7 Gonzaga wins at San Diego after big lead slips away
SAN DIEGO, Calif. – When one thing isn’t clicking for No. 7 Gonzaga, two or three others usually are.
For long stretches of November and December, the Zags could reliably count on 40 points of production from the veteran frontcourt tandem of Graham Ike and Braden Huff.
When Huff picked up his second foul with less than eight minutes remaining in the first half of Tuesday’s 99-93 college men’s basketball win at San Diego, Gonzaga logically turned to Ike. That plan didn’t have a long shelf life, either.
Battling inside with San Diego’s Vuk Boskovic, Ike picked up his second foul on the offensive end, flattening the junior forward as he tried to clear a path to the basket. A sequence of frustrating moments culminated with Ike slamming a plastic water bottle onto the floor, creating a small spill near Gonzaga’s bench that arena employees spent the next few minutes cleaning. The all-conference forward was promptly whistled for a technical foul.
No bigs, no problem.
Moments after Ike’s outburst, Mario Saint-Supery found Tyon Grant-Foster on a baseline cut to the basket. The point guard tossed the ball up to Grant-Foster and watched him finish a lob dunk at the rim, restoring an 11-point lead for the Zags with six seconds left in the half.
With Ike and Huff in foul trouble, Grant-Foster, Saint-Supery, Jalen Warley and a deep stable of Gonzaga bench players were able to pick up the slack and help the Zags avoid a late scare in their second West Coast Conference win of the season.
Warley was active on both ends from the moment he subbed in to the final buzzer, leading the Zags with a season-high 22 points while hauling down 14 rebounds for his first double-double of the season. Warley, who picked up his fourth foul late in the second half, also had three steals.
Days after leading Gonzaga in the scoring column against Pepperdine, Grant-Foster came off the bench to score 18 points and grab five rebounds. The Grand Canyon transfer finished 9 of 14 from the field and 3 of 6 from the free -throw line.
Saint-Supery, who conceded his starting spot to junior Braeden Smith two days earlier, finished in double figures for the first time since Dec. 13 against UCLA and scored 14 points off the bench, making 3 of 6 shots from the 3-point line. Saint-Supery also had five assists.
No surprise, but Ike and Huff eventually found their groove, too. Huff continued his streak of double-digit scoring efforts, tallying 14 points on 7 of 11 shooting to go with eight rebounds. Ike, who returned to the floor early in the second half, had 11 points and nine rebounds. He didn’t miss from the field, going 5 of 5, but was also 1 of 5 from the free -throw line.
Gonzaga came in as heavy favorites and led by as many as 21 points, but San Diego used a late 8-0 scoring spurt to trim the advantage to eight points with 3 minutes, 12 seconds to play. The Zags scored 10 of the next 12 points to go up by 16, but the Toreros responded with another mini run and Adrian McIntyre’s layup made it a five-point game with 11 seconds remaining.
The 93 points conceded by Gonzaga were the most since Michigan scored 101 in a 40-point drubbing of Few’s team in the championship game at the Players Era Festival.
Wake Forest transfer Ty-Laur Johnson scored at least 20 points for the fourth time in five games, totaling 21 points on 9 of 12 shooting. McIntyre had 12 points, seven rebounds and seven assists for San Diego.
A busy stretch to open WCC play continues for Gonzaga (14-1, 2-0) on Friday against conference newcomer Seattle U. The Redhawks were 11-3 and 0-1 in WCC play before hosting Washington State at 7 p.m. on Tuesday.
Tipoff between Gonzaga and Seattle U is scheduled for 6 p.m. and the game will air locally on KHQ as well as ESPN+.