After starting lineup fiasco, Tyon Grant-Foster paces Gonzaga with 15 points in 98-43 win over Texas Southern

Gonzaga’s choppy start during Monday’s season opener against Texas Southern had nothing on the starting lineup fiasco that occurred minutes before tipoff at McCarthey Athletic Center.

The evening’s first slip-up could be attributed to an unnamed Gonzaga assistant, who accidentally penciled Tyon Grant-Foster’s name into the starting lineup that was submitted to the scorer’s table. The spot was supposed to go to fellow transfer Adam Miller, but with lineups finalized and no time to make corrections, the Zags were forced to adjust on the fly and called on Grant-Foster to join Braeden Smith, Emmanuel Innocenti, Braden Huff and Graham Ike in the starting five.

“First time in 37 years this has ever happened where one of our assistants put the wrong name in the book for starters,” Gonzaga coach Mark Few said. “So (Grant-Foster) was sitting there in his warm-ups as we were calling it and we had to get him back out there. Ace Miller was supposed to start, so it was kind of a little bit too much a little too soon.”

After the starting lineup incident and a sluggish start on the court, the rest of the night looked much more familiar for Few, whose Gonzaga team started piling up baskets and defensive stops to cruise past Texas Southern for a dominant 98-43 win at McCarthey Athletic Center.

After some time, the pregame slip-up didn’t look so bad either. Grant-Foster, the newly-eligible Gonzaga wing, paced the home team with 15 points and added five rebounds, hitting on 5 of 7 shots in his debut for Few’s program.

The Grand Canyon transfer wasn’t stunned when Gonzaga’s coach alerted him earlier in the day he wouldn’t be starting. Grant-Foster, who won a preliminary injunction just seven days earlier in Spokane County Court that will allow him to play for the Zags this season, is still getting his wind on the court and learning how he fits into GU’s offensive and defensive schemes.

The former Western Athletic Conference Player of the Year got an unexpected crash course on all of the above Monday night.

“I found out when everybody found out,” Grant-Foster said of when he learned he’d be starting. “I didn’t know. When you start, it’s different, you’ve got to mentally prepare for it. Coach told me, he was like, ‘I’m not going to start you tonight.’ I’m like, ‘it’s fine.’ After everything, I’ve missed so much practice, I have to catch up. I was just surprised, threw me in the fire quick and had to just be able to go out.”

Gonzaga’s streak of season-opening wins never seemed to be in real jeopardy Monday night, even if it did take the Zags slightly longer than expected to shake off cobwebs and dial in their outside shooting.

The Zags still haven’t lost a home opener under 27th-year coach Mark Few and extended their streak of victories in all openers to 22 on Monday. The nonconference tests ramp up, and in a hurry, with Gonzaga meeting SEC opponent Oklahoma on Saturday at the Arena, followed by games against Creighton and Arizona State.

GU missed its first six shots, including three close-range tries and a 3-ball from Ike, the prolific senior post player. The Tigers capitalized on the cold stretch, taking a 7-2 lead on Jaylen Wysinger’s 3-pointer and holding the advantage through the first media timeout.

That’s about when Gonzaga started to surge, playing through Grant-Foster, Huff and Ike on the offensive end while stringing together stops on defense. The Zags, shaky at times on the defensive side of the ball last year, forced Texas Southern into 17 turnovers. The Tigers finished 15 of 59 from the field and 3 of 21 from distance.

“I thought really got going at the end of the first half,” Few said of GU’s defense. “Kind of that’s when we began to get some separation. But yeah, we can put some guys out there that can really guard the ball.”

Ike was able to shake off four missed shots in the opening minutes to post a double-double of 13 points and 11 rebounds, making five of his final seven shots to finish 5 of 11 on the night.

Miller scored 13 points in his Gonzaga debut, making 5 of 8 from the field and pacing the Zags from the 3-point line, where he finished 3 of 5. Huff had 14 points and five rebounds and Jalen Warley came up with a number of key plays on the defensive end, finishing with four steals to go with eight points and four rebounds.

Also making his Gonzaga debut, and playing in his first college basketball game since March 14, 2023, wing Steele Venters added six points off the bench. Freshman Davis Fogle added 11 points and five rebounds in 10 minutes off the bench late in the second half.

The Zags piled up big advantages on the glass (56-27), bench points (48-22) and points in the paint (56-22), to name just a few.

TSU, which played without top returning scorer Zaire Hayes who didn’t make the trip to Spokane, didn’t have anyone finish in double figures.