Gonzaga’s Jalen Warley to miss second straight game with quad contusion

MORAGA, Calif. – Gonzaga’s Jalen Warley will miss his second straight game tonight at Saint Mary’s with a left quad contusion, a school official told The Spokesman-Review roughly eight hours before the regular-season finale at UCU Pavilion.

The versatile wing suited up but was listed as a “gametime decision” on Wednesday against Portland, but took his first “DNP” of the season in Gonzaga’s 89-48 victory that clinched a share of the regular season WCC title and No. 1 seed at the WCC Tournament.

Warley’s absence could factor in to how tonight’s meeting between the Zags and Gaels plays out. Last month, the wing was the primary defender on Saint Mary’s leading scorer Paulius Murauskas, a candidate for WCC Player of the Year who scored 15 points in the previous matchup but was limited to 5 of 14 shooting and 1 of 3 from the 3-point line.

Warley’s averaging 7.1 points, 4.6 rebounds, 1.9 assists and 1.6 steals for the Zags this season.

The Philadelphia native and Virginia transfer has been dealing with a severe left thigh bruise since the early stages of Gonzaga’s 87-80 loss at Portland on Feb. 4. Warley played through the injury the next six games, but logged 20 minutes just twice during that span, struggled to stay on the floor for extended stretches and generally didn’t participate in practices.

Gonzaga’s busy WCC schedule hasn’t given Warley much time to rest, with no more than four days between the team’s last nine games. After missing both games this week, Warley should have 16 days to try to get back healthy before the Zags open the WCC Tournament on March 9.

“We’ll see, this thing’s really bothering him,” Few said. “It’s been hard, we’re trying to stack some off days, see if we can get it healed.”

With Warley taking his second DNP, Gonzaga frontcourt players have missed 19 combined games this season.

Junior forward Braden Huff, the team’s second-leading scorer, is set to miss his 13th straight game with a left knee injury. Fellow frontcourt starter Graham Ike missed one nonconference game against North Florida with ankle discomfort and was sidelined for three WCC games with an ankle sprain.