No. 8 Gonzaga avoids drama – mostly – while snagging 51st consecutive victory against Pepperdine | Analysis
For a wounded Gonzaga team, uneventful West Coast Conference victories are about the best thing you can ask for these days.
The eighth-ranked Zags nearly had another one in the bag Wednesday against Pepperdine when freshman wing Davis Fogle fell to the ground with 33 seconds remaining in the second half.
After grimacing on the court for a few moments while being attended to by athletic trainer Josh Therrien, Fogle popped back up and walked off the court without assistance, showing only a slight limp as he jogged to Gonzaga’s locker room.
Roughly 15 minutes after Gonzaga polished off a routine 84-60 victory against the team at the bottom of the WCC standings, coach Mark Few confirmed Fogle was dealing with cramps when he exited the game late in the second half.
“A bunch of cramps,” Few clarified.
Still, a decidedly positive outcome considering everything else the Zags have been through during a seven-day stretch that’s felt significantly longer for Few and every member of GU’s program.
Without Graham Ike (right ankle soreness) and Braden Huff (left knee injury), Gonzaga had no shortage of candidates willing to step up and shoulder the load. Five players scored in double figures as the Zags raced to their 51st straight victory against Pepperdine, setting them one win shy of UCLA’s NCAA record for most consecutive wins – a 52-game streak against Cal that took place from 1961-85.
The Zags also won their 13th straight game this season, their eighth straight in the WCC and clinched their 29th straight 20-win season, which ranks only second to Kansas (37) among active NCAA teams.
Those records and almost everything else took a backseat to the injury updates Few provided on his All-American candidate frontcourt players as Gonzaga prepares for an important two-game stretch against San Francisco and Saint Mary’s teams expected to compete with the Zags near the top of the WCC standings.
Ike, who hurt his right ankle late in Gonzaga’s road win at Washington State on Thursday, was unavailable for the second straight game and wore a black boot on his right foot while watching Wednesday’s victory from the bench.
“Graham’s kind of day to day,” Few said. “It’s when he feels like deal with the discomfort pain.”
That doesn’t rule Ike out from playing this Saturday, but also doesn’t guarantee he’ll return for a 5 p.m. (CBSSN) game against San Francisco (13-8, 5-3) at McCarthey Athletic Center.
Huff, meanwhile, is expected to be sidelined for the next stretch of home games and likely much longer than that as he recovers from an unspecified left knee injury. The junior forward averaging 17.8 points traveled with Gonzaga for Thursday’s game at WSU, but wasn’t with teammates Saturday at Seattle U or Wednesday at home against Pepperdine.
“B-Huff, we have no updates,” Few said.
Gonzaga won a second straight WCC game by at least 21 points playing without both frontcourt stars, and won its third straight contest with Huff sidelined.
Fogle led a balanced scoring effort with 17 points, creating foul pressure on Pepperdine by attacking the basket and getting to the free throw line for 10 foul shots. The freshman finished 8 of 10 there and 4 of 8 from the field while adding four assists and three rebounds.
Tyon Grant-Foster and Mario Saint-Supery both had 12 points, Adam Miller chipped in with 11 and walk-on Noah Haaland finished as the team’s fourth double-digit scorer with 10 points to go with four rebounds.
Saint-Supery also had five rebounds and five steals while sophomore center Ismaila Diagne grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds with two blocks while making his second career start.
“It’s going to be different, it comes in a variety of ways depending on the day,” Few said. “I thought for the most part, we figured it out, got to 84 points. That’ll do. I think it was a little bit smoother in the first half, but we had open shots and we missed some really good looks in the second half.”
The Zags led wire to wire and by as many as 30 points. Gonzaga finished 31 of 66 from the field and just 5 of 20 from the 3-point line but had a 56-26 advantage in bench points and 48-26 edge in paint points.
Styles Phipps had a team-high 13 points for Pepperdine, going 7 of 7 from the free throw line. Former Gonzaga forward Pavle Stosic added nine points for the Waves, with all of his scoring production coming in the second half.