Gonzaga’s stretch run to close regular season begins against improved Washington State: ‘Ready to protect our home court’

Someone building a list of the issues Gonzaga has encountered in recent games might include extended lapses on the defensive end, subpar shooting from the 3-point line and foul line , and the inability to find consistent offensive production from someone other than Graham Ike.

There’s something else Tyon Grant-Foster feels Gonzaga has lost sight of at times, but potentially rediscovered in the final 20 minutes of Saturday’s 81-61 win at Oregon State.

“Just be confident. We are the Zags,” the transfer wing said. “You know what I’m saying? I feel like sometimes we shy away from actually knowing that. Shoot, we’ve just got to play with a different type of confidence than we’ve been playing with.”

That’s one way to simplify things for Gonzaga, which dropped to No. 12 in the Associated Press Top 25 poll one day before embarking on a three-week run to close the regular season – a stretch that’s loaded with rivalry matchups, Quad 1 opportunities and six total games that will shape whether Mark Few’s team is able to capture a West Coast Conference championship in its final season in the league.

Gonzaga (23-2, 11-1) begins with Tuesday’s matchup against an improved Washington State (11-5, 6-7) team that recently took first-place Santa Clara down to the wire and arrives at McCarthey Athletic Center with a healthier rotation that has a chance to test Mark Few’s team in ways it couldn’t when the teams last met on Jan. 15.

A later tipoff at the Kennel is set for 8 p.m. and ESPN2 will carry the live broadcast.

“They’re playing well. They’d been playing very, very well,” Few said of WSU. “Beat (Oregon State) and put together some nice wins. I know they got some guys back from the first game we played them and they’re shooting the cover off the ball. They’re really, really shooting the ball well. So it’ll be a quick turnaround and we’ll get ready to protect our home court.”

Given the rivalry components that play into a contest between teams separated by just 80 miles, Tuesday’s matchup doesn’t necessarily profile as a trap game for Gonzaga, but the Zags still have to avoid looking ahead to Saturday’s riveting WCC matchup at Santa Clara that could go a long way in determining who claims a regular-season conference crown.

The Cougars have lost six of their last nine games in WCC play, including the 86-65 setback to Gonzaga at Beasley Coliseum, but should have the Zags’ full attention after losing to the Broncos by just four points and throttling Portland 104-74 four days before the Pilots pulled off a shocking upset of the Zags at the Chiles Center.

Defensively, the Zags hope to channel the intensity they played with in the final 20 minutes at Oregon State. They may need to in order to fend off a WSU team that’s exceeded 90 points in four of its last six games, making at least 10 3-pointers in six of its last eight games.

Junior forward Ri Vavers has played a big role in WSU’s outside shooting surge and he adds another element to the scouting report Gonzaga is building after the Latvia native missed last month’s meeting with a head injury. Vavers is the Cougars’ second-leading scorer at 11.1 points per game and he’s already made 31 3-pointers in WCC play.

Gonzaga withstood a first-half perimeter shooting flurry from WSU in the first meeting and played through its advantage down low. In its first game without junior forward Braden Huff, the Zags still controlled the paint with a 52-12 advantage and dominated the Cougars on the boards, with a 43-29 rebounding edge.

“It’s going to be a helluva game,” Washington State coach David Riley said. We’ve got to learn from the last time we played them. I thought we were a little bit chaotic the last time we played Gonzaga. I think the way Santa Clara guards, especially with Gonzaga going a little smaller lately, it does prepare us in some ways. Ike’s going to be posting up just like Graves did tonight.

“We’ve got a great challenge, we’ve got some work to do, we’ve got to get our bodies right tomorrow, we’ve got to have a good practice on Monday and let’s go get after it Tuesday.”