Analysis: Trio of Braden Huff, Graham Ike, Tyon Grant-Foster helps No. 7 Gonzaga avoid upset scare from Seattle U

Fifteen minutes after they were jointly named the most valuable players by a PA announcer, Tyon Grant-Foster, Graham Ike and Braden Huff arrived together at a postgame press conference together and lowered their bodies into folding chairs.

Who better to explain how No. 7 Gonzaga erased a 13-point deficit against Seattle U, sent Friday’s West Coast Conference thriller to overtime and ultimately prevailed than the three players who combined for all but nine Zag points and 26 of the team’s 29 field goals in an 80-72 victory coach Mark Few aptly characterized as “gutty.”

Huff buoyed Gonzaga early, recording the team’s first nine points and tallying 28 in the game. Ike came alive late, scoring eight straight points as the Zags carefully navigated a key stretch late in the second half. Grant-Foster delivered a clutch block in the final seconds of regulation, then scored eight points in overtime to help Gonzaga stave off an upset-minded Seattle U team.

Huff, Ike and Grant-Foster: the three-headed monster desperate to make sure Gonzaga didn’t leave the Kennel empty-handed, with a loss that would’ve had all sorts of ramifications on WCC standings, national rankings and postseason seeding scenarios.

“It was a gutty, gutty response,” Few said. “Obviously Seattle had us on the ropes for pretty much most of that game and I thought that whole last group, we were shuffling lineups, but everybody that got in made plays and finally got efficient on the offensive end and strung together some stops.

“There was a lot of heroic plays there down the stretch, both defensively and offensively.”

Ike and Grant-Foster were at the center of most of them.

Gonzaga’s second- and third-leading scorers didn’t start Friday’s game but they were glad to finish things off against the Redhawks, who arrived in Spokane seeking a four-game sweep of the other Division I schools in Washington after pocketing wins against Eastern Washington, Washington and Washington State.

Seattle U established a double-digit advantage midway through the first half, pounding Gonzaga on the offensive and defensive glass and virtually eliminating every player in Few’s rotation not named Huff, Ike or Grant-Foster.

The trio had all 29 points at halftime, matching GU’s lowest first-half output of the season (Michigan), and were the only Zags to score until Braeden Smith connected on a 3-pointer roughly four minutes into the second half.

Things turned for Gonzaga precisely when they needed to and largely thanks to Ike, who moved to Few’s bench Friday after picking up a technical foul for his outburst against San Diego three days earlier. Ike, who was part of the five-man unit that opened the second half, rattled off four straight field goals and eight consecutive points for Gonzaga to trim the deficit to four.

The Zags and Redhawks went tit for tat the next few minutes before Huff and Grant-Foster delivered layups on consecutive possessions to make it a one-point game. Former Gonzaga forward Jun Seok Yeo, who scored 10 points for Seattle and made an off-balanced, end-of-shot clock 3 early in the second half, converted one of two shots at the free throw line with 33 seconds remaining to restore a two-point lead.

Smith earned a trip to the foul line on GU’s next possession, sinking both shots to tie it at 65-65. The Zags shifted to defensive lineup, putting Smith and Ike on the floor next to the team’s three best on-ball defenders: Grant-Foster, Jalen Warley and Emmanuel Innocenti.

With time ticking down, Seattle U’s Brayden Maldonado attempted a 3-point shot from the left wing but Grant-Foster rose up to get a hand on the ball, sending it out of bounds with 2.2 seconds remaining. Face-guarded by Warley on the final possession, Maldonado tried another 3, but watched his shot bounce off the front rim as the buzzer sounded.

The final five minutes belonged to the Zags.

Grant-Foster had layups on three straight trips down to make it a six-point GU lead, made a pair of free throws with 14 seconds remaining and blocked Maldonado’s 3-pointer on the final possession of overtime.

It was the largest comeback win for Gonzaga since Few’s team erased a 13-point deficit against UCLA in the Sweet 16 of the 2023 NCAA Tournament and the largest regular-season comeback since the Zags rallied from 13 points down against Arizona in 2018.

“Everybody was on one accord, nobody got flustered throughout the game,” Ike said. “We just kept sawing wood, that’s what coach kept saying. Everybody was locked in on getting stops. We knew we would score the ball, we just had to make sure we finished possessions with rebounds.”

Huff scored the first nine points for Gonzaga and 13 of the team’s 29 in the first half. The junior forward converted on three field goals inside the first two minutes, including a 3-pointer, to help establish a 7-0 lead. Huff, who finished 11 of 14 from the field, eclipsed 1,000 career points with former Glenbard West High/AAU teammate Caden Pierce watching from courtside seats. A Princeton transfer, Pierce was in Spokane on an official visit Friday.

Yeo buried a 3-pointer to put Seattle U in the scoring column, but Huff responded with a close-range shot at the other end to make it 9-3. That’s about when things turned for the home team.

Spurred by a 9-0 run, the Redhawks took their first lead at the 15-minute, 36-second mark, eventually went up by 11 points and took a 33-24 lead into the halftime break. It was just the second time the Zags faced a double-digit deficit (Michigan) in any game this season.

Outside of Huff, Ike and Grant-Foster, the only Gonzaga players to score Friday were Smith, who had seven points, and Adam Miller, who chipped in two. Five other GU players finished 0 of 12 from the field.

Yeo’s 10 points made him Seattle’s third-leading scorer, but finished 3 of 11 shooting in his return to Gonzaga. Maldonado led the Redhawks with 17 points on 6 of 16 shooting and 3 of 10 from the 3-point line while adding four steals. Will Heimbrodt scored 10 points and pulled down 12 rebounds, but was limited to 4 of 19 shooting.

The Zags (15-1, 3-0) face another short turnaround and return to the court Sunday for their first and only regular-season meeting with Loyola Marymount (10-6, 1-2), which lost 78-76 at Washington State on Friday.