Portland rides Joel Foxwell’s big night to upset of No. 6 Gonzaga 87-80
PORTLAND – The push notification landed from ESPN’s mobile app with 13 minutes remaining in the second half. Sixth-ranked Gonzaga trailed Portland by nine points at the Chiles Center. The Zags’ top-10 ranking was on the line, an unbeaten run through the West Coast Conference was in jeopardy and a top-three seed at the NCAA Tournament was starting to look questionable at best.
The situation felt just as dire as the mobile update suggested.
That was before freshman sensation Joel Foxwell unleashed two more 3-pointers for Portland, helping the Pilots extend a single-digit lead to 15 points in a matter of minutes.
Foxwell was extraordinary while scoring 27 points, Portland exploited every crack within Gonzaga’s usually impenetrable defense and the Pilots managed to close out an 87-80 victory on their home floor, handing the Zags their first loss in WCC play and one of their worst setbacks in 27 years under coach Mark Few.
Before Wednesday’s game, Gonzaga ranked No. 5 in the NCAA’s NET ranking and No. 11 at KenPom. Portland rated No. 230 and No. 213 in those same metrics and sat at No. 9 in the WCC standings. The Pilots were coming off a 30-point loss at Washington State just four days earlier.
It signified Portland’s first win over Gonzaga since 2014, snapping a 20-game win streak. The Zags won 19 of those 20 games by double figures, including a pair of 30-plus point wins last season.
Graham Ike scored 24 points and pulled down 10 rebounds in his second game back since returning from an ankle injury, but the senior forward couldn’t atone for the defensive and rebounding issues that haunted Gonzaga from the opening tipoff all the way up to the final buzzer.
The Pilots scored their 87 points on 32 of 54 (59%) shooting from the field, 7 of 16 (43%) from the 3-point line and 16 of 20 (80%) from the free-throw line. Before Wednesday’s game, five straight WCC opponents had failed to eclipse 70 points against Gonzaga.
Gonzaga’s largest issue was trying to keep track of Foxwell, who was outscoring the visitors by himself for more than six minutes to start the first half, accounting for 11 of Portland’s first 17 points. Foxwell led the game in scoring, but the WCC’s assists leader also tallied eight assists and four rebounds while strengthening his case for freshman of the year.
The Zags took their first lead of the game at the 6-minute, 55-second mark of the first half on Mario Saint-Supery’s 3-pointer, but it didn’t last long. Gonzaga didn’t score for nearly three minutes to close the opening frame and Portland went into halftime with a 39-33 advantage, becoming just the fourth team to lead at the break while playing the Zags (Michigan, Seattle U, Saint Mary’s).
Not long after ESPN’s “upset alert” update dropped on phones across the country, Portland’s James O’Donnell made a layup that extended the lead to 11 points. Foxwell knocked down two more 3s and Garrett Nuckolls made a mid-range jumper to build a 15-point Pilots lead with 7:10 remaining.
The Zags closed the deficit to single digits in the final minute on a 3-pointer from Saint-Supery and cut it to five points on a jumper from Braeden Smith, then four points on Davis Fogle’s layup.
But O’Donnell responded with a fastbreak dunk at the other end and Saint-Supery missed from distance to help Portland secure a signature win.
Saint-Supery and Fogle were the other GU players in double figures, scoring 12 and 10 points apiece. The Zags shot 26 of 65 (40%) from the field, 10 of 30 (33%) from the 3-point line and 18 of 26 (69%) from the free-throw line.
Gonzaga (22-2, 10-1) resumes its two-game Oregon swing on Saturday in Corvallis against future Pac-12 opponent Oregon State. The Beavers were 9-4 at Gill Coliseum before Wednesday’s late tipoff against Washington State and handed the Zags one of their four WCC losses last season, winning 97-89 in overtime.