Davis Fogle’s all-around performance lifts Gonzaga in blowout of Washington State: ‘The game’s slowed down a lot’ | Rewind

Gonzaga looked dominant. Washington State looked disjointed.

That’s generally been the theme in each of the last four matchups between the Inland Northwest rivals and it certainly applied to Tuesday’s meeting at McCarthey Athletic Center, where Gonzaga built an early lead, kept the pressure on throughout the first half and rolled to an 83-53 victory against Washington State.

The Cougars have won 98 games against the Zags since 1907 and will have a chance to add to the total when both schools join the revamped Pac-12 next season. But there won’t be many fond memories from WSU’s two-year stint facing Gonzaga in the West Coast Conference.

Presuming the teams don’t meet again next month at the conference tournament, the Zags will finish with a 4-0 record in WCC matchups with the Cougars. All four victories have come by double digits, three were by 20 points or more and Tuesday’s was the most lopsided.

We break down three storylines in today’s rewind, starting with Davis Fogle’s impact in another impressive all-around game from the freshman wing.

Davis gets defensive

The most encouraging aspect of Fogle’s final stat line may not have been the 17 points in the scoring column or eight made field goals on 11 shot attempts.

The product of Anacortes also set a new career high with three blocks and matched his career high with three steals, leading a Gonzaga defense that forced 21 turnovers and limited WSU to 39% shooting from the field and 20% from 3-point range.

Fogle’s shown an ability to impact the game from an offensive standpoint since the early stages of November, but there’s been a direct correlation between the freshman’s defensive progress and extended minutes in Gonzaga’s rotation the last three weeks.

“I think on the defensive end, the game’s slowed down a lot,” Fogle said. “Obviously still trying to figure out – still working on it every day in practice and taking all the advice I can from coaches. But I think I’ve grown a lot on that end and just trying to do all the little things. Offensive rebounds, like putbacks, cutting has been huge. Obviously playing without the ball. Then on defense, just trying to guard my yard.”

Fogle was responsible for one of the game’s top sequences late in the first half. Washington State’s Ri Vavers popped out to the top of the arc to try a 3-pointer, but Fogle closed fast and got his right hand on the shot. Jalen Warley picked up the loose ball and pushed ahead to Fogle, who was already running in transition. The freshman took two long steps before capping the sequence with a swinging two-handed dunk.

Fogle is scoring exactly eight points per game for Gonzaga, but his average continues to rise with each double-digit scoring effort. The freshman has scored at least 10 points in five of the last seven games and he’s averaged 24.2 minutes since a Jan. 17 game at Seattle U.

B-Huff back in town

It’s still to be determined whether Braden Huff will return to the court for Gonzaga this season, but having the junior forward back on the bench Tuesday unquestionably lifted the team’s spirits against Washington State.

“I mean, he’s family and he came back today, we’re just happy,” junior Emmanuel Innocenti said. “We hadn’t seen him in a long time and he brought us a lot of energy since this morning and I think he played a huge part.”

Huff, who was averaging 17.8 points on 66.2% shooting, injured his left knee one day before Gonzaga’s Jan. 15 game at Washington State, but still bussed with the team to Pullman and watched an 86-65 victory from the bench.

Huff then returned home to the Chicago area, where he spent roughly three weeks with family and going through physical therapy before returning to Spokane this week.

“It’s great to see him again,” Fogle said. “He’s going to get back on the court, but he’s doing good. Helps our team, too, brings a lot of energy, so it’s good to have him back.”

There’s still no timetable on a potential return date for Huff and Few suggested the Zags were still “waiting to make a final decision” on whether the forward would be able to play again this season. Huff was still using crutches to get around on Tuesday and wasn’t putting pressure on his left leg.

Gonzaga hangover?

A top-three finish in the WCC appears to be out of reach for every team not named Gonzaga, Santa Clara or Saint Mary’s, but eight teams are still in the mix for the coveted No. 4 seed at the conference tournament that guarantees a bye to the quarterfinals.

That includes WSU, which dropped to 6-8 in WCC play on Tuesday but is still within two games of Pacific and will have a chance to narrow the gap when the Cougars host the Tigers next Wednesday.

That’s assuming they can process and successfully move on from a blowout loss at Gonzaga – something that’s proven to be difficult for coach David Riley’s teams at WSU and Eastern Washington.

“That’s going to be a really important film session for us coming up in a couple days, to attack this the right way,” Riley said. “I’ve been a part of teams that played Gonzaga and started second-guessing themselves after that. Seven, eight years ago when I was at Eastern we got our butts kicked out here. It took us two or three games to get over it.”

In 2019, the Eagles took a 112-77 loss to the Zags at the Kennel before opening Big Sky Conference play seven days later. EWU lost just four conference games all season, but two of those came within two weeks of losing at Gonzaga.

Riley’s first WSU team bounced back from its initial loss to Gonzaga last season, beating San Diego and Portland in the next two games. The Cougars lost to the Zags again later in the season and followed with a 30-point home setback against Santa Clara. After dropping the first meeting with Gonzaga this season, WSU lost its next two games against San Francisco and San Diego.