Emmanuel Innocenti comes through for No. 6 Gonzaga during second-half surge: ‘I wanted my revenge’ | Rewind

The blood stains on Jalen Warley’s white Gonzaga jersey may not have been visible to the 6,000 fans that crammed into McCarthey Athletic Center Saturday night, but they were discernible to a group of reporters sitting within 5 to 20 feet of the senior wing at a postgame news conference.

There’s no singular statistic that measures force or physicality, but Warley’s uniform represented what was required of sixth-ranked Gonzaga to get past Saint Mary’s in the first of at least two meetings this season between the bitter WCC rivals.

“I would say it’s kind of how we expected,” Warley said after the Zags held off the Gaels for a 73-65 win on their home floor. “Shout -out to our scout team, they really got us ready this week, were beating up on us so we were kind of ready for the physicality. We knew in those really exciting type of games, it’s going to be physical, there’s going to be foul calls, so we just really tried to kind of set the tone physically, on the glass and with our aggressive drives.

“We lived up to the expectations, for sure.”

The Zags (22-1, 10-0) are still alone atop the WCC standings, with a half-game lead on Santa Clara, two-game lead on Saint Mary’s and five-game lead on fourth-place San Francisco. They could very well move into the top five of the Associated Press poll Monday, with No. 5 Nebraska absorbing multiple Big Ten losses last week.

Warley was effective on both ends of the floor Saturday, finishing plus-25 in his 33 minutes. Graham Ike was masterful, scoring 30 points in his first game since Jan. 15. Both deserved praise Saturday night, but our Gonzaga-Saint Mary’s rewind focuses on another player who had a huge role in the Zags’ second-half surge.

Driven by revenge

Emmanuel Innocenti was guaranteed to end up in the WCC after a solid freshman season at Tarleton State.

The Italian forward went on multiple recruiting visits after putting his name in the transfer portal. That included a pit stop in Moraga, California, and another in Spokane. When Innocenti trimmed his list of potential schools down to two, the ones remaining were Saint Mary’s and Gonzaga.

“Before coming here, I visited (Saint Mary’s),” Innocenti said. “Then I visited here and I liked it better, so I just had to come here.”

Two of the three meetings with Saint Mary’s last season didn’t sit well with Emmanuel Innocenti, who played 16 minutes in a 74-67 home loss to the Gaels and 28 in Gonzaga’s 62-58 setback at UCU Pavilion. Although the Zags had the last laugh in the WCC tournament, GU’s returning players couldn’t shake the image of Saint Mary’s players celebrating a regular-season conference title on their home floor.

Especially the one that briefly considered a future with Saint Mary’s.

“I took it really personal today, especially after last year,” Innocenti said. “We played twice against them, we lost twice in the conference games. Today I just wanted my revenge and I wanted to win at all costs.”

It required Innocenti to take matters into his own hands for one three-minute stretch in the second half.

The forward scored his first points on a layup less than three minutes into the period then knocked down a corner 3-pointer on a kickout from Adam Miller to close the deficit to three points. It was Gonzaga’s first triple since early in the half and came on the heels of seven straight misses.

“I feel like making 3s gives me confidence throughout the game, especially on offense,” Innocenti said. “But I’m focused a lot on defense because getting stops, that’s what I do.”

Innocenti converted a putback on the next possession then completed a personal 10-0 run when he knocked down his second 3-ball from the opposite corner, tying the game at 46-46.

“Pretty much sparked them,” Saint Mary’s coach Randy Bennett said.

Innocenti didn’t score outside of the 3-minute, 12-second stretch in the second half, but his contributions gave Gonzaga the momentum and confidence necessary to close out Saint Mary’s. The Zags didn’t trail again after Innocenti’s flurry and led by as many as 10 points in the final minutes.

A starter in 18 of 23 games this season, Innocenti finished with 10 points on 4 of 9 shooting and 2 of 4 from the 3-point line. He also had five rebounds, two assists, one block, one steal and zero turnovers.

“I just chose here because everybody knows Gonzaga for what they do offensively,” Innocenti said. “Especially, I feel like I wanted to get better as a player and I feel like they gave me a great opportunity and that’s why I came here. Nothing against Saint Mary’s, I know they’re a great team … but I just chose the best fit for me.”

On the ball

Saint Mary’s might be strong on the defensive end of the floor, but the Gaels had little to do with the nine turnovers Gonzaga committed inside the final 12 minutes, 17 seconds of the first half.

Tyon Grant-Foster connected on one long touchdown pass to Ike that resulted in two points, but most of Gonzaga’s high-risk passes resulted in bad turnovers, allowing Saint Mary’s to capitalize at the other end.

An 11-6 advantage in points off turnovers was notable as the Gaels went into halftime with a four-point lead.

“The biggest thing was just the turnovers – we had nine turnovers in the first half,” Gonzaga coach Mark Few said. “Most of them were just a crazy variety, just bizarre. Once we shored that up and then hit our coverages, what we were trying to do. Some of these guys, this was a big crowd and they were overhyped or overexcited and we missed several coverages there.”

The Zags addressed ball-security issues at halftime and barely had any coming out of the break. Ike lost the ball with 3 minutes, 35 seconds remaining, but it went down as Gonzaga’s only second-half turnover, giving the Zags nine in the first half and 10 total in the game.

“That was really the whole key,” Few said.

End of an era?

It’s unclear what the future holds for one of the top rivalries on the West Coast.

Few and Bennett have both expressed interest in resuming the Gonzaga-Saint Mary’s series when the Zags leave for the Pac-12, but it’s unlikely the longtime WCC foes will see each other on an annual basis after this season and highly possible future encounters will be held at neutral venues, rather than at the Kennel or UCU Pavilion in Moraga.

Bennett tried to process the fact that Saturday’s game could mark the Gaels’ last visit to Spokane – a trip Saint Mary’s has made on an annual basis since 1972.

“You don’t get this very often, especially in the West. It’s a high level of basketball and great atmosphere,” the Saint Mary’s coach said. “That’s what you get. They really care about their program here and they’ve been good for a long time. So yeah, this will be weird not doing this anymore. There’s not many teams or programs that you get that atmosphere. I remember BYU was that way as well.

“This place even more so and they’ve been doing it for so long. They’ve got the best winning percentage the last 27 years, whatever. That’s what we’ll miss, playing that, seeing that. Yeah, it’s a great atmosphere. They care a lot about their program.”