Gonzaga turns up defensive effort in second half, keeps turnovers down in Oregon State win | Rewind

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Gonzaga players didn’t spend much time listening to the discourse surrounding their team in the 48 hours that followed a seven-point upset loss at Portland.

The Zags stayed one additional night in Portland before busing to Corvallis on Friday to prepare for Saturday’s road test against Oregon State.

According to Gonzaga players, there wasn’t much dwelling on what happened over 40 minutes at the Chiles Center, unless it was used constructively as a teaching point to help with in-game corrections.

By early Saturday evening, it was evident GU had fully moved on from Wednesday’s setback. The Zags built a four-point halftime lead against Oregon State and ran away with an 81-61 victory over the Beavers at Gill Coliseum.

“A lot of great constructive criticism, I think we responded well,” senior forward Graham Ike said. “It’s also been a lot of positive energy around despite the loss. We got back to who we are tonight. We wanted to make sure we understood and remembered who we are and how we got to this point. I think we did a great job of responding.”

Outside of film sessions, practices and shootarounds, Gonzaga players used the extended road trip to bond away from the court.

“I feel like the most important thing to me was we bonded a lot, we had fun,” senior wing Tyon Grant-Foster said. “I feel like that really gave us an edge.”

On the court, Gonzaga’s second-half defense and ball security made big differences against Oregon State. We touch on those things and Grant-Foster’s impact off the bench in our day-after rewind.

Doubling down on defense

Gonzaga may not want to revisit the first three halves of defense it played in Oregon this week, but players and coaches were happy to discuss the final 20 minutes of their two-game road swing.

In the opening frame of Wednesday’s loss at Portland, Gonzaga gave up 39 points on 51.6% shooting from the field.

Things didn’t get any better in the second half, when the Pilots posted 48 more points shooting an astronomical clip of 69.6% from the field.

The Zags didn’t immediately improve on that side of the floor against Oregon State and the Beavers hung tight in a four-point game thanks to 34 points and 54.5% shooting.

Oregon State made a variety of difficult shots, but Gonzaga didn’t help matters by arriving a half-second late on closeouts and struggling to fight through screens that freed the Beavers for uncontested 3-pointers.

“We just talked about at halftime, getting back to guarding again,” Few said. “Challenging them to have the best defensive effort for 20 minutes and to their credit, they did it. We really defended well, I think we held them to 33% shooting, all the while stayed pretty consistent on the glass.”

The message from Few and the coaching staff sunk in at halftime. Gonzaga limited Oregon State to 33.3% from the field and just 27 points in the final 20 minutes, allowing the Zags to build a double-digit lead they wouldn’t relinquish.

It marked the third time in WCC play Gonzaga held its opponent to fewer 2-pointers than 3-pointers and a lower 2-point percentage than 3-point percentage. The Beavers finished 9 of 25 (36%) on 2s compared to 10 of 18 (55%) on 3s. In wins over San Francisco and Washington State, the Zags limited the Dons to 8 of 27 (29%) on 2s and 14 of 28 (50%) on 3s before containing the Cougars to 8 of 24 (33%) on 2s and 13 of 28 (46%) on 3s.

“Just to be more connected, communicate more, be more aligned on both ends of the floor, especially on the defensive end,” Ike said of the staff’s message at halftime. “We understand we’ve got to hang our hard hats on defense. We’ve been saying that since the beginning of the season, so we just had to be more locked in on that end and we were.”

New low is a positive for GU

Struggling to find a blue jersey on an inbound play in the first half, Braeden Smith forced a pass to Tyon Grant-Foster near the right sideline and watched the ball deflect off his teammate and trickle out of bounds.

With the victory in hand late in the second half, Ike threw an errant pass looking for Davis Fogle underneath the basket.

Those were the only two giveaways for Gonzaga, which tied the program record for fewest turnovers in a single game.

“Two turnovers in 40 minutes on the road,” Few said. “We’ve never, ever done in all the years we’ve been doing this.”

Few suspected that may have been the case and was informed Gonzaga’s two turnovers did tie the previous record, which was set during a Jan. 24, 2019, game at Santa Clara.

“When did we have the other one? That’s pretty amazing,” Few said. “Wow, the ’19 team did that? Yeah, that’s crazy.”

The Zags only turned the Beavers over nine times, but finished with a 13-2 advantage in points scored off turnovers.

Starting point guard Braeden Smith had six assists and Mario Saint-Supery added five more, but four other players had two assists apiece for the Zags, who had 20 as a team. Many of the passes found Ike, who matched his career high with 35 points and made 13 of 18 shots from the field.

“They did a nice job with the plan, but the other guys found (Ike),” Few said. “Graham had a nice calmness and pace about him, he wasn’t settling. He’s been making some of those middies. We executed, they were in and out of zone. Played man, played zone, switched halfway through the possession. I thought we kind of handled that very, very well.”

Stepping in, rising up

Grant-Foster played out of position but never looked uncomfortable while totaling 15 points and seven rebounds in 26 minutes for Gonzaga.

The transfer wing has typically played the “3” for Gonzaga, but a shorthanded frontcourt combined with Jalen Warley’s foul trouble prompted Grant-Foster to slide in and play some rare minutes at the “4” on Saturday.

“Playing with (Ike), he gets a whole lot of attention,” Grant-Foster said. “He allows me to get those easy dump downs. I apologize, I did miss one. That’s just playing in the flow of the game. I haven’t really played the ‘4’ position in a while with this team and now I’m back here, getting comfortable playing in the dunk coverage and everything.”

Grant-Foster had made just one 3-pointer in his last six games, but he knocked down Gonzaga’s first on a look from the left corner 10 minutes into the first half. After making just 8 of his last 21 free throws, the Grand Canyon transfer made some headway at the foul line and found his rhythm going 4 for 4 against the Beavers.

The athletic wing has been responsible for many of Gonzaga’s highlight reel-worthy plays this season and added another to the mix on Saturday.

Roughly five minutes into the second half, Smith was leading the Zags’ fastbreak when he tossed an alley-oop lob to a streaking Grant-Foster. Moving at full speed, the senior wing slowed himself down to collect the ball with one hand, control it with the other and punch it into the basket.

“I knew I was going to catch it because I was angry, because I missed the one Mario threw to me,” Grant-Foster said. “I actually slowed myself down, that’s why I put two hands on it because if I would’ve kept one hand on it, I would’ve went out of bounds.”